REGISTERED participants of the i-Design Facade Design Competition can now submit their ideas.
Submission have been received since Nov 1. Entry will close at the end of the month.
For those who were unable to register earlier, i-Berhad has good news for you. The registration date has been extended to Nov 8.
i-Berhad director Monica Ong said the extension was due to overwhelming response.
“Over the past two weeks, we have been getting a lot of enquiries from participants and we have a dozen students visiting our property gallery to study the scale model of i-City to get a better idea of the project,” she said.
She added that about 370 students had registered, out of which 6% were students studying abroad.
The competition, launched on Oct 9, gives Malaysian students in universities locally and abroad a chance to design the facade for an upcoming mixed-development project in the western part of i-City.
They can participate in groups or individually, and need not be a student of arts, design or architecture to participate.
Not only will university students get a chance to create a facade, the winner will get to work with industry experts and see their ideas materialise.
StarMetro spoke to Universiti Teknologi MARA Shah Alam Architecture, Planning and Surveying dean Dr Masran Saruwono and the Malaysian Institute of Architects president Mohd Zulhemlee An to get their thoughts on the competition.
Dr Masran said the competition was a good initiative to get young people involved in designing the built environment.
“It encourages public participation in expressing their ideas on important landmarks.
“It is an opportunity not to be missed by students from various disciplines such as architecture and design,” he said.
The facade of a building, he said, made the first impression to visitors.
It also plays an important role in projecting the corporate image of the company.
“A facade used to be manipulated to a certain extent in the entertainment and advertisement industry, but due to the advent of sophisticated lighting, especially LED and advancement of computer technology, facades are taken more seriously today,” Dr Masran said, adding that coming up with an innovative facade was no easy feat.
He said failure to understand the functional aspects of a building was one common mistake made when designing a facade.
“The outcome will possibly be a fanciful design with unclear purpose and contextually irrelevant.”
Before thinking of a design, Dr Masran advised participants to first study i-City’s vision and mission.
Zulhemlee feels that the competition will add to students’ learning experience.
As registered participants were given a chance to attend a one-day workshop with industry experts, he said students would gain valuable knowledge.
“It is a good opportunity for students to explore their creativity and gain new knowledge. For i-City, it’s a good platform to get creative designs where some will be out-of-the-box ideas, from students who are usually more adventurous in their designs.
“A facade protects against elements and speaks about the image of the building since it is the part that people see first.”
“A facade can be the branding for the building owner and sometimes, it is also used as an advertisement,” he said.
One building facade which Zulhemlee admires is the Petronas Twin Towers.
“It’s very functional, protected against the sun but from the inside, it does not obstruct one’s view. The sunshade looks very futuristic, which is very fitting to the whole image of the building,” he said.
Designing a facade, he said, depended on a balance between the image and the function.
The challenge lies in deciding which is the higher priority and to employ the right technology to achieve the result.
“The common mistake is forgetting about the elements based on the location of the building. For example, a glass facade for a tropical climate like ours must use double-glazed glass, but because of the cost, the client may opt to laminated glass,” said Elhemlee, urging students to do a lot of research on facade design.
“Think about how the image of the development can be expressed through the façade design. It should be functional and must be able to be interpreted or read from the highway since the highway is near the i-City development,” he said.
He said the student designers should take note of the sun and rain as these are the major issues in Malaysia when designing a facade.
“Lastly, be creative and explore various solutions before finalising on one. Use this opportunity well, it doesn’t come very often.”
The facade design competition is based on the theme “Pulse of Selangor” and/or “City of Digital Lights” and must incorporate a Malaysian element into their designs.
The winning design will receive RM10,000 cash.
The winner or winners will be announced by the end of December or early January.
If you are ready to take on this challenge, visit www.i-city.my to register and submit your idea.
