Kuala Lumpur, September 2019 — The winners of the Housing 4.0 Design Competition, the first open architecture design ideas competition and digital innovation lab in Malaysia, was announced recently by Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) and Gamuda Industrial Building System Sdn. Bhd. (Gamuda IBS) at the awards’ ceremony held at Publika.
The design competition, a creative collaboration led by Project Team Leaders Ar. Ang Chee Cheong from PAM and Gamuda IBS’ General Manager, Mr. Tan Ek Khai, attracted a total of 111 registrants and 74 submissions since it began in April 2019.
The awards ceremony was graced by Guest of Honour, Deputy Minister of Housing and Local Government, Yang Berhormat Dato’ Ar. Raja Kamarul Bahrin Shah. Also present to witness the awards ceremony were industry players and PAM members.
In his speech, Yang Berhormat Dato’ Ar. Raja Kamarul said: “The built industry today has better access to technology which provides opportunities to focus on sustainable innovation that draws the communities while optimising performance. This competition is intended to reinvent the designs of future Malaysian housing through the use of Industrialised Building Systems (IBS) and Building Information Modelling (BIM), in line with the National Housing Policy 2019 (Dasar Perumahan Negara 2019) that targets to build 1 million affordable homes in the next 10 years.”
Gamuda IBS’ Tan shared that the competition was aimed at empowering designers and architects to use Building Information Modelling (BIM) technology, an online design tool in 3D, which will dictate what is produced by the robots in Gamuda IBS’ factories. Digital IBS will reduce the country’s dependency on foreign and manual labour by 70 per cent, while building up a pool of innovative and skilled workforce that is ready for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0).
“The competition is not just about a winning prototype design, but it’s also how the built industry collaborates via a digital platform. The competition witnessed many designs and schemes that will challenge conventions for housing. Following the digital innovation lab, we look forward to engaging industry players, as a digital IBS solution provider, on ways we may be able to realize some of the Housing 4.0 competition ideas. In addition, we are pleased to have PAM as an industry partner to elevate the industry to be future ready,” Tan said.
PAM’s Ar. Ang Chee said, “We are very pleased to collaborate with our digital technology IBS partner, Gamuda IBS on Housing 4.0. Housing issues in this country are complex and manifold, and this competition provided a good opportunity to re-think housing and to bring the architects perspective to the conversation. What the participants has shown is not a ‘vision’ of the future but new housing models using construction technology and design ideas available now! While the competition requires architects to propose for the middle, affordable range to social housing, you will see that the designs are ‘luxurious’ in qualities, with light-filled homes, smart spatial arrangements, social amenities and most importantly, to promote a sense of community rich in neighbourliness (kejiranan).”
GDP Architects won the grand prize of RM80,000 (1st Prize), while GSD Architect won RM40,000 (2nd Prize) and Qhawarizmi Architect won RM30,000 (3rd Prize). Additionally, Syihan Amir Office and Veritas Architects won two (2) Honorary Mentions of RM15,000 each.
The panel of judges for the competition include Ar. Ezumi Harzani Ismail (Immediate Past President of PAM), Ar. Ary Indra (Principal of Aboday), Eddie Chan (Gamuda Land Executive Director), Ar. Yap Yew Peng (Director of Y Architects) and Devendran Krishnamoorthy (Gamuda Land General Manager) among others.
For more information on the HOUSING 4.0 Design Competition, kindly visit
-end-
