This is a retrospective look at PAMSC’s first World Architecture Day (WAD) celebrations in 2011. As we all understand now, the first Monday of every October is World Architecture Day as sanctioned by the International Union of Architects (UIA). Its aim is to promote good architecture, raising public awareness about the role of architects and architectural firms in the locality, and to serve as a meeting point for members and potential members. We know this largely because of PAMSC’s continued efforts to promote awareness in conjunction with WAD.

Since 2011, there have been numerous instalments of 24-hr design workshops, urban installation competitions, ‘Cardboard City’ installations, and lately, pavilions in the park.

The very first ‘Cardboard City’ installation was crafted from 200 kg of recycled cardboard boxes into a cave-like structure, with a ‘sheltering’ sky overhanging its entrance. The design plays on several metaphors – one being the discarded material (cardboard, plastic sheeting, etc.) used by the ‘discarded’ (and often not seen) humanity in our midst—the homeless living in their makeshift city. The other is in the form of the installation: a home for prehistoric man.

The site for this installation was at a shopping mall in Kuching: The Spring. The ‘construction’ team comprised students from my diploma class and young architects from local firms including my own. We arrived after dinner on Sunday, thinking that we would be able to start work.

We were told that we were not allowed to build until after the mall was closed for business – 10 p.m. We spent 2 hours putting together the flattened cardboard cartons into boxes. There were several hundred of them, and it took another 6 hours to assemble them into the cave-like and cantilevered structure that we had in mind.

My young team learnt that it is easy to draw a structure. It is slightly harder to coordinate its construction, and very, very hard to build it yourself. I learnt that good architecture students are robust; they have good stamina and are able to see things through. The whole team stayed on until the installation was complete at 6 a.m. the following day.

I left to prepare the poster and flyer for the launching later that morning. PAMSC Chairman Peter Wong arrived at 8 a.m. to collect the printed materials and send them to the site. By then, our collaborator architects, Peggy Wong and Joseph Chai, had arrived to install the lighting and cardboard furniture in time for the launching of the installation and exhibition by the Mayor of Kuching City South.

For a week, the 6 x 9 x 4 m-high structure doubled as an exhibition space for PAM activities and architectural projects, with the main objective of prompting discussion about the basic human right to decent housing for all.