On 29th November 2010, a group of 15 students from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia were announced as the runner-up winner for 1Malaysia House Design Competition 2010 organized by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Shah Alam. All the delegates were in UiTM to receive the prize worth RM 5000 for the design competition, and an additional of RM 1000 for winning the best presenter category. The first prize winner team is from UiTM Seri Iskandar, while the first runner-up is from Tunku Abdul Rahman College. Seven institutions took part in the competition.
Preparation for the Competition
At the beginning of semester 2010/2011, an invitation was sent by UiTM Shah Alam to all higher education institutions in Malaysia. The competition brief was to design a house which resembles the unique mixed culture of Malaysia, for Malaysians. Matters such as interior design, façade, spatial planning, environmental response, landscape architectural design and site planning had to be taken into consideration in order to achieve the objective.
Dr. Raja Nafida was appointed as the team coordinator, together with Pn. Malsiah Hamid and Dr. Roshida Majid. A designer team of 15 students were formed, a mixture of undergraduate and post-graduate architectural students and a quantity survey student. The students involved were selected due to their special knowledge, leadership and skills in design. The students involved in the competition:
- Mazyani bt Muhammad Raslani (Leader 1)
- Atta Idrawani bin Zaini (Leader 2)
- Hisham b. Abdul Rahman
- Nurulhuda bt. Mohd Non
- Noorfazlenawati bt. Mohd Nor Azli
- Wan Fairuz Nazwan b. Wan Ridzwan
- Nik Farah Elina bt. Nik Razmi Shah
- Taschi Tsering Sim
- Mohd Farris bin Mohd Sarofil
- Lim Yaik Wah
- Abdul Azim Rupaai
- Muhammad Syafiq bin Muhammad Noor
- Mohd Nor Izwan bin Samani
- Tan Choon Boon
- Khairool Aizat bin Ahmad Jamal
During the design process, numbers of meeting were held to get more input from lecturers and team members. The main constraint faced by these students was communication, due to the fact that they are not from the same year. However, they managed to organize themselves through meeting appointments and crit sessions conducted throughout the semester.
The Competition Entry
The entry from UTM was called ‘OneMalaysiaHouse’, to portray the idea of simplicity and escaping from the metaphorical approach towards realizing the 1Malaysia concept in physical form. The idea was to include all different lifestyle from different racial beliefs, especially in the spatial planning. The house was intended to move into the existing Malaysians lifestyle, instead of forcing and dictating the users to live in accordance to the design. The façade design was intended not to represent any race, hence was simply to respond to the hot and humid climate of Malaysia. The team did all the environmental ana lysis with the aid of Autodesk Ecotect by simulating the house with the actual environmental context of Malaysia. Overall, the concept of this ‘OneMalaysiaHouse’ may be conceived as the best prototype of Malaysians lifestyle in true Malaysian cultural, environmental, and social context.
