ICI Assignment One - Magazine

TIME

Shamsuddin Wahap

My World My Rule 2 The Man You Never Know 3 What I Think? 5

MAY 2013

It becomes you

Puduraya Bus Terminal

Shamsuddin Wahap is an interior designer in Veritas Design Group since 1992. Veritas Design Group is a multi-disciplinary consulting firm which provides integrated architecture , planning, interior design, landscape design, quantity surveying and environmental consulting services for innovative buildings and spaces throughout the Asian region and beyond.

INTErIOr DESIGN was not in Shamsuddin Wahap’s initial plan. He had always been a creative person. He liked to draw, paint and built. He chooses architecture as a career because of his interest in art and that architecture is a profession. He wasn’t inspired to choose architecture. The inspiration hit him during his journey. His mentors and some architects, such as Frank Lly-od Wright, have inspired him and ignited the flame of passion in him.

“It becomes part of your soul, heart and mind. It becomes you.” -Shamsuddin Wahap

He got a scholarship to study A-levels in New York and complet-ed Master of Architecture. After

graduation, he ventured into the soci-ety and work as an assistant architect in England. Due to his job require-ment, he moved around a lot and there were little personal time left.He switched to interior design 3 years ago. Switching profession was a very bold action but he had a lot of sup-port from his mentors in England. They had been helpful and influential “Architecture and interior design are not so much different”, Shamsuddin Wahap said, “It is about how you experience and create spac-es.” Both architects and interior de-signers work with the surrounding environment and applied the same thinking process. However, interi-or designing is more specific and focus. The process for interior de-sign is also much faster because it doesn’t require the approvals from government as architects needed.

Page 5

MY WORLD MY RULE

Shamsuddin pondered for a moment before he an-swered “I’m not conventional. I’m creattive. Ido the same thing in different ways.” Although Shamsud-din described himself as creative, he admitted that he repeats the same path when he is being creative. “it is a habit, a signature, like how people pack their luggage the same way everytime”, he said.

“How am I different

from others?”

With his experience as an architect, Shamsud-din developed his own unique style when it comes to interior design. When he was an archi-tect, he get to built a lot but he can’t do that in in-terior design because the space is limited. So he

“break it into a few dimensions”

and come out with the idea of layering space. he loved to create interconnected space and fluid space.

Even for his home design, he prefered a si-miliar idea. he wants a free and simple space, like an art gallery. He explained further,

“If you have a lots of paintings, you will want a large and simple space to display it.

The Man You Never KnowDespite his busy work life, Shamsuddin can al-ways find the time to spend on his hobbies. Fishing is one thing that he enjoyed spending time on. Just re-cently, he have been to Bosnia to fly fishing. Fly fishing is different from the regular fishing. It requires more skills. He explained briefly about the difference be-tween fly fishing and the regular fishing. Fly fishing uses insect bait that floats while regular fishing uses any bait that sink. With an excited tone, he exclaimed that he caught a trout, a kind of colourful fish. Both fly fishing and trout are something that can’t be found in Malaysia.

Another thing that attracts Shamsuddin is cycling. Shamsuddin often cycle at country side or more pristine areas. He can spend days just to cycle. “It frees my mind”, Shamsuddin explained. The sceneries along the journeys were so beautiful that he couldn’t help but got addicted to it. The sceneries were simply inspirational. He ex-pressed his regret for being unable to show us the picture.

Travelling has became part of Shamsuddin’s life. Due in part to his work, Shamsuddin has been travelling around for years. However, it was not a burden to him as he enjoyed travelling. One of the most memorable place he been to is Istanbul. The Sultan Ahmed Mosque or more commonly known as the Blue Mosque has an especially deep impression in Shamsuddin. He couldn’t say anything more as his reminiscence about the fantas-tic architecture work come into his mind. The fusion of the modern and the past was one thing that amazed him.

The concept of this fusion is also a reason for his in-terest in the renaissance buildings. The coexisting modern and old community fascinates him. Italy, in particular, piqued his interest. He describe these build-ings as “plain on the outside, interesting on the inside.”

“plain on the outside, interesting on the inside.”

He showed us the photo of himself in the Blue Mosque

At the end, Shamsuddin is just another common man. Like everyone else, he fears. He fears of aging and that he will grow too old to think. He fears of losing his job due to economy crisis or country. He fears that he have to let go of interior design one day and he is not ready for that day.

What I think?Puduraya Bus Terminal

“We want to make the wait-ing experience more like an event”, he said in his in-terview for this Puduraya Bus Terminal project. Puduraya Bus Terminal is one of Sham-suddin’s work and one of his pride. He was asked to refur-bich the 30-year-old bus termi-nal and he gladly accepted it. He is proud that he can contribute to the society and the people is using the bus terminal well. He has always wanted to con-tribute to the society by giving the people more public spaces.

When asked for his wish, he selflessly says that he want to have the power to change Kua-la Lumpur. He criticized that Kuala Lumpur has too few public space and public trans-port are poorly developed. He wanted to change that aspect of Kuala Lumpur. “Even the riches in England use

public transports”, he recalled.

He would like to establish a building school here in Malaysia, fol-lowing England’s example. “We have the right exposure and under-standing but we don’t have the right people”, Shamsuddin confessed. Malaysia’s building workforce are mainly foreign labours. They do not posses the essential skills to perfect the building works. “This is an issue as they are the one whho make things happen” he emphasized.

Currently, he has no specific goal in his career. In term of work and life, he is contented with what he has now and he just want to live in the moment. Nevertheless, Shamsuddin says that he will always push himself for more and never go for the easy catch in generating ideas.

Written by Eugene Peng, a student