As a Suzhou newcomer, Anastasia (aka Vicky) dragged me into this ladies’ Wechat group chat (mostly expat ladies), a very informal one called “Ladies Dinner Around the World” about a year ago. The premise is ladies take turns to host Friday night dinners revolving around the theme of our countries. After a few rounds of enjoying and joining other parties, Vicky and I brainstormed the idea of having an Indonesian night. A few idea iterations away, November came, and we were to host on November 3rd. Vicky found a good spot in MSocial, a newly opened hotel which serves (what a surprise) a few Indonesian dishes. Chef Rich (originally from Malaysia) was super accommodating, and he proposed a custom set of Indonesian-style dishes, buffet style. The cooking team worked very hard and professionally, and we expanded the number from the usual 20 to 60 registered ladies at the end! Beyond impressed.
Chef Rich
With the help of two other Indonesian ladies, Wanti and Anne; we set up the place. Welcoming snacks (krupuk) were served as ladies made their way in. Making use of this gathering opportunity, I shared our food-related culture very briefly (as we were all starving!), which is very diverse, full of texture, full of colour and full of tastiness! For instance, Balinese food is very different with the Eastern Java food I grew up with. The short presentation is concluded with an introduction of the walk-the-tampah challenge, commonly played on August 17th, the Independence Day celebration with other fun games. There were five awards of the night: tampah lady, passionate walk, confident walk, sexy walk and lady walk. Super fun!
We hope, with this simple act of sharing our culture through food, other families get to know more about Indonesia and consider visiting Indonesia in the near future. Cheers all for coming, and it was a pleasure.
A fully funded PhD opportunity in Xi’an Jiaotong – Liverpool University. Successful candidate is expected to conduct the study in Suzhou, China. PhD degree will be awarded by the University of Liverpool (UK).
These 3D models were generated roughly from drawings which are available online (from IBUKU’s website, ArchDaily, etc), from photographs found online and Mia’s own photographs when she joined BambooU Design and Build Intensive course in 2019.
This write-up is a reflection on the Architectural Design 3 studio module in Ningbo University in the first semester of the 2021-2022 academic year, focuses on the use of Miro software in the architectural studio setting as an alternative to face-to-face (F2F, henceforth) learning. The sample size is small with a 77% response rate (7 students). Nonetheless, it is hoped that this initial observation shows students’ voice and concerns with the use of Miro. This blog only shows the Miro-related survey which was part of the end of semester student survey of 24 questions.
A bit of background, the module was co-taught by Fin and myself. The international program in Ningbo University has been online from February 2020 due to the fact that most of the students are still abroad. Last semester (September-December 2021) we adapted Miro for the first time. The learners confirmed that none of them had prior experience with Miro in question #17.
At the beginning of the semester Miro was also used to get to know each other through the ‘Introduce Yourself’ area. Tutors and learners had their designated boxes to showcase their passions etc. It was hoped to create a conducive online learning community, especially between tutors and learners as we did not know each other before this module. The design brief was to design a library.
Figure 1. Screenshot of MiroFigure 2. Week 1-Week 6 Miro, out of 17 weeks learningFigure 3. Rating of synchronous online learning
It is commonly understood that in architectural pedagogy, face-to-face studio setting is irreplaceable. The online learning provision cannot mimic the usual studio setting; however it offers a unique experience in comparison to F2F. These unique experiences are the point of departure of this observation, giving rise to the potential to incorporate the observed benefit to the existing F2F learning for future flexible learning purposes. Overall, the learners rated the synchronous online learning, using a combination of Miro and a video conversation platform DingTalk as a positive experience, see Figure 3. In addition, the online learning community is considerably well rated too, see Figure 4.
Figure 4. Rating of online learning community
Figure 5 shows the general acceptance of Miro, however this also shows that it cannot replace the F2F experience. From Figure 6 the constant (twice a week) display was rated positively by the learners (85.7%), I found this interesting as this capability is less likely to occur in a regular F2F. Usually learners get to see their friends’ work in the studio setting but not to this extent of all of their progress. 42% of the students also pointed out that it facilitates the peer learning exercise.
Figure 5. Overall rating for MiroFigure 6. Rating of online components of the module
On the last survey (question #24), learners were asked to leave feedback on Miro use. They criticised that Miro could be slow to load at times. It is usually due to the number of images, learners’ internet connection and using the free version of Miro. This situation was mitigated by splitting the whole semester journey to three Miro boards. The first board (Figure 2) displayed Week 1-6 progress, the second board displayed Week 7-13 progress and the third board was exclusively for the final assessment (final crit, see Figure 7). There was a conflicting view on the use of Miro with regards to panel layout. One student mentioned that it saved time instead of making panels using design software such as Photoshop/AI, however another learner preferred to use the design software. Perhaps this was not illustrated clearly- in the future, it is best to highlight to learners that they can still do layout in design software and upload them as images into Miro.
During the final crit (Figure 7), the facilitators decided to combine a live presentation and a pre-recorded one. This would minimise the technical and internet problems. The live session served as a summary of the final work, and pre-recorded presentations were used to expand the design in more detail.
Figure 7. Final crit using Miro
To sum up, although the use of Miro was generally well accepted, there is room for improvement. Referring to the aim of this blog to identify the potential use of Miro to complement future F2F learning, some identified advantages are: 1) the constant display of progress was beneficial for tutors and learners, 2) minimising the need for panel lay outing, and 3) Miro can also be used to facilitate assessment in F2F and flexible learning environments. It is also observed by the author that making sketches during tutorials on Miro is as convenient as on paper-and-pen, co-sketching during tutorials with learners can also be achieved and documented.
Link to the final student work and the AR experience:
Batik illustrates the use of traditional hot melted wax and natural dye pattern making. Here is our previous article on batik (click here and here for the AR experience). We took two design and turned them to cloth masks, to be used in conjunction with a surgical mask.
Lock down Batik, our own design. The story of being in lockdown for a long time causes the inner circle relationships to be tighter than ever, and it is bordered with lines that represent social distancing with extended family and friends. It also makes some tangential connections with the edges and forms a strong structure that is extended and repeated throughout the pattern.
Disruption Batik, our own design. This pattern is a tribute to the pandemic era that defines our generation’s story. The forms depict:
1. Sun shaped objects: Covid 19 virus has a unique shape that defines the core of the pattern.
2. Three layered circles: Represent the never-ending evolution of covid variants.
3. The wavy tendrils: Define the disruption of the spreading of the virus. As a whole, the pattern defines its own story of our generation in the pandemic era, and shows both the dark, negative aspects and the light, positive ones.
I sat down with Stacey, we had a talk about my passion and general interests in design and architecture. Thank you for having me, Ningbo Focus. If you would like to read the article, here is the pdf: Mia Ningbo Focus March 2022. If you are keen to read the whole March 2022 bilingual magazine, click here for the e-magazine.
