“Building Beyond Boundaries” – stepping into urban design…

Hello and welcome! My name is Ng Yue Qyng, from Malaysia, a passionate explorer of design and built environment. I am currently a final year postgraduate student in the M.Arch degree programme here at Newcastle University. As a newbie! (for  both urban design and international student life) The journey so far has been rewarding, and I’m excited about what lies ahead. Embarking on this challenge as an international student feels invigorating, to be so far away from home, for a long long time… After completing my undergraduate studies back home, I have been working for a few years, focusing on projects range from community research, to architectural design and some artistic installation projects, and through these experiences, they have curated my belief in design today.

During the latter years of my studies, I found myself drawn to urban design, largely influenced by one of my tutors – to start off architecture design with urban strategy or vice versa, to be perceived, designed or operated as a single discipline – offers more clarity than placing a block like a monopoly game.

Initially, my understanding was quite conventional: it seemed to focus on aspects like basic site analysis (road network, wind direction, sun path, etc…), often accompanied by iconic landscape structures to make an impression on paper. However, as I delved deeper, my perspective began to shift, pushes me to look past traditional site boundaries and explore designs that are socially and culturally attuned.

One of the turning point was during my research project in Lenggong, Perak Malaysia. A small town in the west coast of Malay Peninsula, there lies a UNESCO site as risk –  for it’s archaeology discoveries. I started off working on the chosen site as a school work, and chosen to be one of the member to base at the site for research project after a year. Spending 2 months working behind a great team and 1 month with the local, it has made me realize the power we hold in our profession to build and improve the society – balance between working with the theory on a book and the voice of the community. It has prompted me to rethink the design I proposed a year ago, when I lacked a deeper connection to the people and the site. Without that attachment, my approach was more abstract and disconnected, missing the nuances of the community’s needs and the site’s cultural and environmental context.

This experience has changed me completely – to the realization of how urban design could be a medium of sharing culture and knowledge. Excavating the potential of one community that has always been rooted in them. Hence, I signed up Urban Design as my elective route to elaborate on my journey of contributing to the community.

collage from research camp in Lenggong, Perak, 2022

Joining the MAUD Design is not an easy journey as a full time MArch student (in my personal opinion), despite the clashes and extra workload, I still find myself enjoying the process with the knowledge gained in this short amount of time. I hope to gain a set of skills through this route that will not only complement my architectural studies but also enhance my understanding of how design can positively impact society.