Page 83 - AEI Insights 2019 - Vol. 5, Issue 1

Yaacob and Kun, 2019

in a detailed manner, the negative and positive aspects of this novel approach, tracing back the
historical change of function and change of use of the building, for example how it was a house
which turns into a museum, in a step by step process. Another remarkable workshop which
was leading by Eduardo Souto de Moura (Photo 7), a Pritzker Prize winner in 2011, to revitalize
a selected site in Porto, to carefully place the new functions buildings such as hospitals
accommodation into that site. (Photo 6). Pacilia had benefited a lot from this workshop having
the opportunity to visit the Siza’s work and to do the field trip study with the students.

Pacilia expressed her admiration for the Italians who are proud in preserving their culture
exemplified in their homes which are almost entirely modified inside, but well preserved on
the outside. She opined the effort done to preserve their house façade which was more out of
respect and pride rather than merely following rules and regulations. Learning about Italian
culture, was the most enjoyable part of staying there. Pacilia is close with the Italians, such as
her roommate, and she mixed well with different age groups, including younger Italian students
of architecture, her roommate’s family, church friends and classmates. She views the Italians
as a more enclosed and preserved society and not easily to accept others while keeping close
to their culture, although younger people are more exposed, especially in sampling different
food. Pacilia became more laid back and patient, as the local environment and people take
everyday life and issues slowly. She managed a few words in Italian to get by, using gestures
and expressions, although the local Italians may have understood English, they have difficulty
to speak or don’t want to speak. There were no bad encounters as they were very friendly.

The program was officially to be conducted in English but a lot of the discussions were in
Italian. During the lectures the professors would speak English but Pacilia felt that they can
deliver better in Italian, as she tried to understand and always ask her Italian friends, as many
of the projects are in group work format. Furthermore the documents are in Italian, although
some Spanish speakers in the group did help. (Photo 8). It was not entirely consistent, where
she recalled that they discussed the work again and again, but there was only one time that they
needed to read the documentation, so Pacilia did other group work that did not require reading,
instead. Almost all of the work are group work, where it is a struggle in the beginning, but later,
she changed the way she felt, where she explored a bit more other facets of discovering the
place and people. There were also difficulties with the tutors (apart from the lectures) including
other visiting and external critics, always talking Italian, though she could guess the ones they
translated though they did not usually translate the words she could not understand.
The program included a visit to FAUP and Porto, where Pacilia enjoyed the Porto trip, of which
most of it is visiting and talking about Alvaro Siza’s works in Porto. She did not know she
liked Siza that much until she visited the Boa Nova Tea House facing the sea. She considers
Siza’s work to belong to the sensitive and thoughtful architecture, which includes the works of
Carlos Scarpa in Italy and Geoffrey Bawa in Sri Lanka, all of which she had visited previously.
When she had the spare time during weekends and breaks, she went all over Italy including
Venice, Verona, Padova, Florence (Photo 10), Naples, Rome and etc. That was when she
visited the restoration of an existing building by Scarpa called the Castelvecchio Museum in
Verona (Photo 9). The adaptive re-use program of taking an old existing building to become a
new museum, though integrated in a modern way, by carefully and respectfully integrating the
old and new elements together. Pacilia also visited other countries such as Spain, Switzerland,
Netherlands, UK, Ireland and etc.
As a girl from a small town called Banting, the Erasmus Mundus program allows for East to
West exchange and vice versa, from staff mobility to students studying academic courses at
various places around Europe and Asia. Pacilia went through an experience in character
building and she expressed that she is much more at ease conversing with people from different

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