PAM unveils jury for Langit

KUCHING: The Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) has unveiled the jury members for Langit, a design competition for a high-rise in Kuching.

The jury includes Peninsular Malaysia heavyweights like Lilian Tay, who is Veritas Design Group vice president, and Sarawakian notables like Mike Boon, a multi-award-winning conservation and green architecture specialist.

Other members of the jury are Datuk Ar Ezumi Harzani Ismail, the sitting PAM president, Ar Ivy Jong, who is the jury chair and PAM Sarawak chairman and Yu Ji, a representative from competition promoters Hock Seng Lee and Next Phase (NP).

Langit is Sarawak’s first ever design competition and the promoters, HSL-NP, are looking to build a commercial high-rise on an acre of land in the city centre.

In the design brief, HSL-NP is calling for a building with 30,000sqm of floor space, with emphasis placed on both building users and the public.

“Any commercial building is also an opportunity to create more public spaces,” HSL property development general manager Tay Chiok Kee said, adding the strategic location of the land means it is easily accessible to all.

Prize money for the competition tops RM200,000, with the winning entry to score RM100,000.

Registration and submission for queries have begun on Feb 8 and the posting of answers to queries will be on March 19. The closing date for architectural submission is April 19, with the results and prizes to be announced in late May.

Competition organiser PAM Sarawak Chapter selected Langit’s jury to reflect the promoter’s high-rise intentions and public function.

Jong is a director of Atelier Timur Sdn Bhd, the jury chair and the first woman to hold the chairman position of PAM Sarawak. As a founding partner of Atelier Timur Sdn Bhd, Jong had worked in the state since returning from London in 1997.

She has been involved in a wide range of projects, from institution buildings to community-based projects with her recent projects include the visitor interpretation centre at Piasau Nature Reserve in Miri and the Beacon Project at Samalaju National Park, Bintulu.

Her goals for the projects are to engage and educate the public on the conservation of the natural resources. She was also a member of the Malaysian Green Building Council and a Green Building Index Facilitator.

Meanwhile, Ezumi is the current PAM president and a board member of the Board of Architects Malaysia and Board of Engineers Malaysia.

Since 2015, Ezumi has been the advisory board member of Kuala Lumpur City Hall for four consecutive years and he was re-elected as the PAM president for 2020/2021.

He is the director of Arkitek MAA Sdn Bhd, one of the largest architecture practices in the country and a winner of various awards, including PAM Architecture Awards, CNBC Asia Pacific Property Award, MIP Excellence in Planning Awards and BCI Asia Top 10 Architects Awards.

Ezumi holds a Housing Building and Planning Bachelor degree and another Architecture Bachelor degree from University of Science Malaysia. He also holds a Master of Philosophy (Policy Studies) from University of Technology Malaysia.

Besides, Lilian is Veritas Design Group vice president and a senior design principal at Veritas Architects Sdn Bhd, an award-winning architectural firm that was founded in 1987. Veritas aspires to create responsible and resilient architecture that uplifts lives and inspires appreciation of the local place and culture.

In her recent tenure as PAM president, Lilian sought to promote the expertise, skills and talent of Malaysia’s professional architects – which had been long under-valued – and to enhance opportunities for the country’s architects to serve the community and contribute meaningfully to nation building.

Trained at Princeton University, United States, Lilian had worked at KPF, New York before returning to Kuala Lumpur, where she had been a director at Veritas since 1995.

Veritas’ notable projects include Menara Binjai, DiGi HQ, One Sentral, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment building, Putrajaya Sentral, KL MRT1 stations, W Hotel, Angsana Penang, Sinkeh Hotel, Star Residences, Oxley Towers and most recently, Saloma Link Bridge.

Boon, the principal for Arkitek JFN and past PAM Sarawak chairman, is one of the state’s most established architects, with a firm grasp of diverse architecture from mass housing to historical building conservation.

His highly photogenic Toyota 3S Centre in Sibu was also one of the first to obtain Green Building Index certification in east Malaysia.

Boon graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture from Western Australia University in 1989 and had been practising in Kuching since.

“After 30 years of experience, we are still re-evaluating our roles as architects in society. I’m searching for better ideas and refinements in this place that I call home,” said Boon.

Yu is a director at Next Phase, a family-owned property developer. Before engaging in the business, Yu was a reporter with The Borneo Post for five years before working for The Star for another six years.

Yu intends for Next Phase to be a professional and design-led company and he aims for his properties to be more affordable than most.

Next Phase is an offshoot of Hock Seng Lee (HSL), a multi-disciplinary construction specialist in Sarawak. HSL’s properties have won the trifecta of property awards — from the Malaysian Institute of Architects, Institute of Landscape Architects Malaysia and Sarawak Housing and Real Estate Developers’ Association.

Both Next Phase and HSL operate out of their own Green Building Index certified headquarters at La Promenade.

 

 

 

 

 

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