THE FUEGO BLOG

While currently traveling with my family throughout Malaysia and Southeast Asia I was reminded of a post by Robert back in May. He posted an image of the Burj al Arab Hotel and commented on the development of the country and the overwhelming growth and importance of its architecture.  From the window of my hotel room here in Kuala Lumpur, I had this view of the Petronas Towers.

The Petronas Towers (also known as the Petronas Twin Towers), in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia are the tallest twin buildings in the world. Tower 2 was built by the South Korean multinational Samsung Engineering & Construction and Tower 1 by Hazama Corporation of Japan. They were the world's tallest buildings from 1998 to 2004.

It's amazing to see this beautiful building up close.  In Southeast Asia architecture is viewed as a way to announce arrival and a symbol of economic power.  After viewing this structure in person, I can say with certainty it does have a powerful presence!

Up next for me, is a trip into the rain-forest of Borneo.

Traveling with the CEO of our company throughout China and Taiwan is quite an experience. As anyone who has worked with Alex Siow in the past knows, he is a master of bringing people together. Nowhere is this more evident than in our Asian travels. Our first day in Taiwan, we visited 4 different factories, and Alex welcomed members of one to join us in visiting their potential competitor in the next....

My job takes me around the world to build products. I travel to make contacts with manufacturers worldwide in order to locate the best fitting partners to produce our products. My focus currently is the Fuego Modular, which has landed me in Taichung, Taiwan, working with a high quality, and highly flexible niche producer of high-end grills and their stainless products. Since the first Modular concept and design, which was showcased last year, the product has now been approved for production and is currenlty in the full production design, engineering, testing, and certification phase. We are thrilled to be on target to begin mass production in September...

My job takes me a lot of places. All across the U.S., China, Singapore, Taiwan, England, Germany, Italy, etc. Lots of places you'd expect design and manufacturing to happen. But over the last year, I've developed a design relationship with a company in a place I'd never expected: Dubai.

First of all, let me tell you about Dubai. You've all seen the images and the news specials. It is a place of open possibilities. The tallest buildings. Communities rising out of the sea. Disneyland-like malls, hotels and entertainment centers. Development on a scale never seen before. It really is mind boggling. For example, you probably have seen the Burj al Arab. The famous hotel that looks like a sail, built on a man made island just off Jumeirah beach, in which the rooms start at US$1,700 a night. Well, when Sheikh Mohammed decided to build it, it was a $2 billion project. In a $10 billion economy! He spent 20 percent of their GNP on a hotel. Well he was right. It has come to symbolize Dubai and catalyzed the region as a destination. If you Google Dubai, half of the images will be of the Burj al Arab.