“Don’t forget the units, Marcel!”

Hi, I’m Marcel.

My physics teacher used to say that to me in high school. Once, I had to retake an entire test because I’d forgotten to put units on my answers.

Annoying at the time. Useful lesson in retrospect.

A number without a unit doesn’t tell us very much.

Give it the right unit and it acquires context.

It becomes definite, quantifiable, comparable.

It begins to mean something.

Years later, I ended up studying architecture and working in the building industry, where two units appear constantly: metres and millimetres.

Hence, m & mm.

The name has acquired another meaning for me over time. Buildings require thinking across scales. We think about cities and buildings in metres, then design, fabricate, and solve their details in millimetres. The big idea matters, but so does the tiny junction where two materials meet.

I’ve found much the same thing in business and investing.

Strategy matters.

So do the details.

This is a place for me to think about both.

I write about buildings, cities, business, and capital, usually through things I encounter in my work and life in Indonesia. Sometimes that means façade engineering or architecture. Sometimes urbanism, property, management, or investing. Occasionally it may mean something else entirely.

The subjects vary. The habit I’m trying to develop remains the same: understand the larger system without losing sight of the details.

From metres to millimetres.

About me

I’m Marcel Sutrisno.

I studied architecture and now work across construction and several businesses in Indonesia, with much of my professional work connected to façades, aluminium, glass, and the built environment.