Bfm :: I Love Kl

Filled with loads of tradition, Petaling Street has been regarded as a heritage site with its historical buildings, traditional trades and rich history. Taking note of the clash of modernisation and inhibitors maintaining their traditional practices, arts-and-culture initiative Project Future Malaysia (PFM) introduced its latest project - “Traditions in Transition”, a book and video series featuring the stories of these traders. Joined by project manager Kevin Bathman, local author Francis Nantha and the producer of its video series Daniel Lim, we’ll be exploring all aspects regarding this project, as it gears up for its launch this weekend.Photo credit: Unsplash

The Forest Learning Centre, the latest addition in Perdana Botanical Garden, was set up recently to make learning about our forest more accessible and approachable. They do that by offering guided tours, focusing on our local plants, trees and fruits, as well as exhibitions that are meant to bridge the gap between art and creativity with technical knowledge and jargon. Joining us to talk more about The Forest Learning Centre and what they plan to achieve to make our forest more accessible for all are its curator, Syarifah Nadhirah and its project manager, Ain Umairah.Photo Credit: The Star

Human Edition is Shi Han’s attempt at deconstructing people and peeling away that veneer that we sometimes simplistically latch on to when it comes to perceiving others. Human Edition came to be amidst Shi Han’s struggles with her own career and life, and using her own experience as a reference point, she aims to tell the stories of others from a more empathetic point of view. She joins us on the show to share the behind-the-scenes challenges of running Human Edition, her thoughts on the technicalities of storytelling on social media, and her grand plan for Human Edition and her own life moving forward.Photo Credit: studio hu.ed.

Popa Nota is David Ho’s attempt at expressing his creativity and love for design in multiple shapes and forms. Combining typography, origami and paper engineering, he produces pop-up art that looks at alphabets and letters from a perspective that’s not only three dimensional, but also very tactile. David joins us on the show to share the story behind Popa Nota, his experience with multidisciplinary design, and the mathematics and intricate artistic processes behind pop-up art, as well as his future plans to spread this form of art to more like-minded individuals.

Documentary filmmakers UNI Gallery are committed to capturing the stories and people behind Malaysia's traditional trades. Also known as 有你, or "Together With You", the team have created a vast library of documentaries, shining a spotlight on over 150 businesses and traditional practitioners - many of whom are "uncles and aunties" keeping generations-long traditions alive. UNI Gallery producer Daniel Lim shares the editorial and production process behind documenting these untold stories and their quest to uncover the uniqueness of every individual.

Inspired by the waste found on the beaches of Langkawi, Rebecca Yau, founder of social enterprise Ekha Langkawi wants to make upcycling fun through arts and crafts by turning waste - primarily plastic bags and discarded cotton t-shirts - into sustainable fashion. With the launch of the Ekha Hub in Central Market earlier this year, they're aiming to conduct upcycling workshops, community programmes, and sustainable fashion retail to kickstart the movement towards sustainability. We speak to Rebecca to find out what it takes to turn trash into fashion, empowering communities with craft skills, and how you can do it at home.Photo Credit: Ekha Langkawi

We head to Putrajaya and Cyberjaya to reflect on the history, growth and future trajectory of these two places with our resident heritage conservation expert, Elizabeth Cardosa. We start the conversation by reflecting on what Kuala Lumpur was like in the early 90s and the catalyst to move our administrative capital over to Putrajaya, as well as unpack how these two places are designed to project Malaysia’s aspiration.

Generally, kindergartens are the first few public spaces where children will get to explore the world and mingle with the larger society outside of their families on their own. Therefore it’s extremely crucial for this educational institution to be designed accordingly to facilitate their growth and development properly. In this episode,  we look at the types of kindergartens that are generally available in Malaysia and whether we’re doing enough to create a conducive learning and growing environment for our children.Photo credit: Kiddy123.com

Last month, a number of incidents involving trees being uprooted due to bad weather and heavy storms led to various conversations surrounding trees and greeneries and their place in the overall city landscape. There were many suggestions and perspectives on the matter, and in this episode of I Love KL, we’ll be looking at the issue from an urban design perspective, emphasising on the importance of trees in our cities and proper upkeep and maintenance as part of the solution to the problem.Photo credit: Bernama

This episode of I Love KL looks at heritage conservation efforts and buildings and wonders whether there are “expiry dates” to them. Is there an end period where heritage buildings would eventually have to be demolished? Likewise, do we stop conserving these buildings once they’re no longer relevant, especially to the younger generations? We explore this with our resident heritage conservation expert, Elizabeth Cardosa.Photo credit: sconzani.blogspot.com

How do you turn food waste from one of KL's busiest wet markets into natural dyes for art to tackle the city's perennial food waste issue? That's what DuniaMotif hopes to answer through its project and exhibition, the Kuala Lumpur Colour District. The exhibition, held earlier this month at the New Chow Kit Market, had visitors experience firsthand the process of collecting food waste from Pasar Raja Bot and repurposing it into materials for art displays by participating artists in an effort to reimagine the waste we create and empower individuals to take action towards building more sustainable communities.We speak to the team behind the project to dive into the colourful world of transforming waste using traditional methods, the unique possibilities that our food waste and environment can offer, and what it takes to bring together art and advocacy.Photo credit: Kuala Lumpur Colour District

KitaBina is a community-powered DIY and woodworking makerspace in KL that wants to furnish individuals with DIY skills by helping them realise their woodworking potential. We speak with KitaBina co-founder Jon to find out more about the space, how they're tackling the prevailing stigmas that DIY skills might still carry, and how they're getting people bitten by the woodcraft bug through Pesta Bina - their woodworking festival that promises to equip you with the basics in just one hour.Photo credit: KitaBina

Bike Commute Malaysia (BCMY) is a grassroots NGO made up of architects, commuter cyclists, and urbanists, advocating for safer street design and low carbon mobility across Malaysia. The group aims to make streets more equitable and inclusive to serve the needs of diverse mobility modes. Earlier this year, they embarked on a project that’s meant to make streets around school safer. The pilot project was implemented in SK Danau Kota 2, in collaboration with DBKL and the Global Designing Cities Initiative under the Bloomberg Philanthropies Initiative for Global Road Safety.Initiative director Justin Lee shares how BCMY is making an impact through their well-received road safety pilot project, how they're advocating for Malaysian changemakers and the public to reimagine our streets so they can be friendlier for all, and how creating safer streets starts with design.Image credit: @bikecommute.my (Instagram)

In conjunction with the upcoming by-election happening this weekend, I Love KL decides to travel out of Klang Valley slightly, to pay a figurative visit to Kuala Kubu Bharu. We look at the history of the place, what it’s known for now, and whether the negative aspects of development will ever come to this quaint little town.Photo credit: Selangor.travel

The Force is strong this month as Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club commemorates Star Wars Day on the 4th of May in the best way possible! It’ll be a month-long celebration full of events organised by the club and many of its associates. Expect screenings of Episode I: The Phantom Menace in conjunction with the film’s 25th anniversary, flea markets, and many more. Lau Chee Kin, the President of Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club, and Sanjiv Indran, its honorary secretary, join us to share the various events that they have in store, as well as geek out over the franchise, the Malaysian Star Wars fandom, and the direction Star Wars is heading under Disney moving forward.Photo credit: Star Wars Malaysia Fan Club

Over the past four years, the Borneo Laboratory has woven together artists of diverse backgrounds and practices through their art. Aiming to bridge divisions and rekindle our shared roots through the ancestral wisdom drawn from Borneo's craft practices, Malayan communities, and global communities, the Lain Lain Project unveils these narratives through an evocative, thought-provoking exhibition, The Lain Lain Project. This trilogical exhibition features "Serumpun", which explores the endeavours of 12 Bornean-based craft communities and their commitment to preserving ancestral wisdom in the face of eroding traditions due to extraction economies, "Big Trip", which looks at how ancestral wisdom and rooted practices cultivate broader global connections, and "Lain-lain in Kuala Lumpur" that initiates an ongoing dialogue to unravel the intricacies of lain-lain within the Malayan landscape.On the show to tell us about the stories and experiences from which the exhibition grew, contextualising the Lain-lain narrative

We might be tempted to believe that to set off some of the city's best pyrotechnic nighttime spectaculars, you just gotta ignite the light and let it shine.But what happens before the fuses are lit?This week on I Love KL, we're joined by fireworks programmer Jeffry Bahary, the man behind the 2017 SEA Games fireworks and countless more firework spectacles around the world. From inspiration to ignition, Jeffry enlightens us on what it takes to put together a firework show, getting into the industry, the not-too-worrying growing popularity of drone shows filling our night skies of late, and some tricks of the trade.Photo credit: khairi ahmad / Shutterstock.com

Part of the tradition of commemorating Hari Raya Aidilfitri is to get fresh attire in the form of Baju Raya. Traditionally, Baju Melayu is the go-to outfit for men, but these days, people look for other options too as alternatives. Then, there are also those that modernise the Baju Melayu in various different ways. Sometimes, to mass approval, and other times, to deafening criticism. In this episode of I Love KL, we go back to basics and break down the traditional Baju Melayu attire, from top to toe, as well as explore the evolution of this long-worn attire and ponder whether it’s always necessary to modernise them?

Our conversations on heritage buildings have always had a mix of everything and is pretty even in its distribution, but for some people out there, their notion of heritage might tend to skew towards focusing on British colonial buildings, rather than vernacular or rural architecture. So, in this episode, to play a bit of a devil’s advocate, we decided to explore that question - do we focus too much on British colonial architecture?Photo credit: gumbao / Shutterstock.com

Somewhere In The Kuala is an illustrated children's book that follows two kids, Han and Mina, on their whimsical, curious, sometimes even treacherous, adventure as they run around KL. The book, written and illustrated by Lisa Goh and William Chew, features no words or dialogue, but paints a wondrous picture of our city, its iconic buildings and areas, and the people that make up the city's unique vibrancy - all seen through the eyes of kids. Lisa and William join us in the studio to talk about how exploring cities themselves inspired the book, why they chose not to shy away from portraying the harsher realities of the city, their hopes for the book to advocate for a KL that is better connected and easier to navigate, and the endless eye-opening interpretations the book can inspire across ages and language barriers.