PENANG, 13 October 2020 - Architecture students from the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Housing, Building and Planning (HBP) once again made the University proud when they emerged victorious in the recently concluded Retirement-Oriented Development Design Competition 2019 (RODDC2019).

Three of the USM teams that entered the competition made it to the final top 10, and in the final round, one team took home the grand prize of RM10,000, with the other two teams secured fourth spot (RM4,000) and sixth spot (RM2,500) respectively.

The winning entry which clinched the grand prize is called ‘Hyden Park’ and was designed by the team comprising of Mohd Pirdaus Beddu, Muhammad Haikal Abdul Hamid, Homaidi Hasan and Muhammad Hasrizal Azlin Hashim.

Chan Lek Heng, Chong Wei Hao, Ong Poh Yin, Ooi Wei and Soon Beng Thye made up of the team that took fourth place with their entry named ‘Quilt Village,’ while sixth place went to the team comprising of Muhammad Khairul Syahmi Zawawi, Lau Zhin Yang, Sharvin a/l M Poovaneshvaran and Tan Xian Yi with their design ‘Cloverville’.

 

Overall, the architecture students attributed their success to teamwork and the integration of multidisciplinary knowledge and skills, where they worked collaboratively with students from various majors like Quantity Surveyor and Civil Engineering programmes at USM.

Credit also goes to Dr. Nooriati Taib, Associate Professor Dr. Muna Hanim Abdul Samad, Ar. Anuar Rizal Abdul Rahim and Ar. Muhammad Md Hashim for their dedication in supervising all the teams throughout the different rounds of the competition. 

They received tremendous support too from the HBP Dean, Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Abdul Naser Abdul Ghani and the HBP management.

The prestigious competition was organised by the Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Malaysian Research Institute on Ageing (MyAgeingTM), Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) and KWAP Real Estate (KWEST), with the following objectives:

• To encourage the future generation of designers to plan and design the development with associated facilities which will cater to the different needs at different stages of the life cycle.
• To raise awareness and sensitivity to the public on the importance of a retirement-oriented development in an ageing population.
• To demonstrate variations of architectural concept designs for an integrated retirement-oriented development of multi-generational model.

The competition offered a total prize reward of RM45,000 and has attracted more than 40 entries from various local and private institutions from all over the country.

The achievement in RODDC2019 also goes to show that USM Architecture with its motto, ‘Integrated Design Environmental Architecture’ or ‘IDEA’, has succeeded in nurturing young architects in the built environment to design sustainable solutions that attune to the needs of various target groups, including the senior citizens.

Text: Tan Ewe Hoe/Infographic: Ebrahim Abdul Manan