B: AN IMAGE OF THE BUILDING THAT INSPIRED YOU TO BECOME AN ARCHITECT

Probably the first time that I was ever awed by architecture was at the age of 10 when my family and I first returned to Malaysia. It was the Kuala Lumpur Airport, which like most other airports was designed to reflect a deep sense of the nation’s culture and embodied a welcoming magnificence. I fell in love with the airports interior; the beams created to look like stemming branches were distinctly manmade structures adapted from nature. The hundreds of ceiling lights as a kid reminded me of stars in their eclectic arrangement. Though the most beautiful, and unique aspect of the airport was a giant strangled fig tree which escaped into the building. This idea of gaining inspiration from nature and working with the natural world to design and create buildings greatly appealed to me and although I wasn’t dead set on becoming an architect just yet, this was the time as I recall when the idea first entered my head.