Garden Shed for Home of Peace

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“One idea, two weekends, a lifetime of flowers – many hands make light work.”

For years, Sister Flora of St. Francis Sarawak wanted to build a garden shed for the elderly residents at Home of Peace (HOPE) so they could have a proper place to pot plants, grow orchids, flowers, and herbs for sale as well as for leisure. However, funds were tight and used for the running of the elderly citizens’ home. So, the shed kept getting deferred until November 2013 when Ar. Ivy Jong invited Ar. Wee Hii Min and his 10 architectural trainees to design and build the structure over two weekends.

This project was the brainchild of Ar. Ivy Jong, with the support of PAMSC, the local chapter of the Malaysian Architects’ Institute, and other industry partners, such as Stampin Furniture, who assisted in the casting of the slab, and Paragon Concrete, who pledged concrete blocks for the garden shelves.

These young people were architecture students from the University of Manchester, the University of Sheffield, Taylor’s College University, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), and LimKokWing Borneo Campus. Some of them were interns in local firms in West Malaysia.

The entire process took them four hours, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. They were assisted by supervisors from Nyet Kiong Steel Workshop and Peter Chia from HOPE. In the first week, they cast the ground slab for the structure, and the following week, they continued with the construction of the steel structure and roofing. A few weeks later, they went back for a half-day job to construct the shelves and racks for pot plants.

When interviewed, Ivy said, “It is important for architecture students to understand how their drawings take shape. More importantly, young people need to understand the value of physical labour and how it can improve the lives of others.”