Taipei and Returning to An Empty Office
It seems every blogger I’m reading this morning is apologising for not blogging lately. The end year festivities have all but surely clouded out the regular humdrum of daily routine for most, and for me a time like this breaks up my already-fragmented thought process into even finer particles.
It’s been hard buckling down back to work, after this break. Went to Taipei last week for a short pre-Christmas getaway, and minus sun, sand and sea, (because my ancestry dropped the gene for ruggedness somewhere along the way) it went rather well. Concrete jungle, hear me roar.
My only regret with Taipei is that I couldn’t find the buckling spring keyboard I was looking all over for. Somehow, I had mistakenly built up expectations of finding one there. Having tapped on every keyboard I could find in Guanghua, only to be greeted with icky squishy keys (as compared to crisp clicks I was hoping for), I’m disappointed, to say the least.
Being back in the office with everything sealed in boxes for the movers hasn’t done much for productivity, either. Before leaving for Taipei, I enthusiastically taped up all my boxes, only to return realising that I need access to my notes. Heck, I’ve even sealed up my mugs and pens.
The reason everything’s packed is, obviously, we’re moving. We’re going from our current premises at 8 Shenton Way to Centrepoint—yes, the shopping mall. I didn’t know Centrepoint had office space, either.
8 Shenton Way, previously known as Temasek Tower, changed its name from actually having a name to none at all, in the latest trend of obvious naming that this country has indulged in.
The one thing I won’t miss about this place is it’s ridiculous lift system. Although its Wikipedia listing boldly boasts its double-decker lift, the engineers have somehow missed the entire point of the system.
A double-decker lift works by serving alternate floors (since it spans two floors at once), saving precious real estate by having a larger capacity, and cutting down travelling time by skipping alternate floors for its passengers.
However. Howwwever. This building has somehow rigged the lifts to serve every single floor for both carriages, meaning that two people getting on the lift at the basement and ground floor both going to, say, the tenth storey, will stop the lift twice in a short hiccup.
Not only is that inefficient for a double-decker setup, it’s inefficient even for a single. Classic example of Singaporean mentality: get the most expensive installation (because the pricier the better, logically) and magically expect it to plan itself out.
So goodbye Temasek Tower—I mean, 8 Shenton Way—and hello Centrepoint, home of the Robinson’s Sale and many a future shopping break.
Oh god yes, Temasek Tower (or 8-Shenton-Why-The-Fuck-Bother-To-Change-Your-Name-Way) is notorious for her lifts. I even had an ex-colleague who quit her job because she couldn’t tolerate the speed of these brilliant lifts. Imagine that. I quit my job because of slow lifts. I wonder if my mum would approve if I do the same.
u’re at centrepoint now?!?! gee, so unfriendly. u do realise u’re jus a coupla busstops down from me, for like 3 weeks, until i hit science park in feb right? lunch, at least once, y’hear! haha
Lift-design is an art…i once intvw’d a couple of elevator-engineers (a Finnish firm, been making them almost a century, interesting eh?). These guys know more than architects, they HAVE to. The prob is that the architect ultimately chooses the design.
So whether it’s a sky-lobby, a low-block/hi-block setup or whatever, a smart architect will let good lift-engineers dictate the design. those double-floor lifts aren’t in too many buildings because, guess what: they never worked very well. Yr two real choices are sky-lobby (everyone gets the express if going above a certain height) or low/hi.
There are some bad lift-designs in Hong Kong, esp in Taikoo Place, where I work. Certain towers have queues at rush-hour (mostly lunchtime). Ugh.
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