Winning Criteria Behind Housing 4.0
All through April until September, Gamuda IBS, together with, Persatuan Arkitek Malaysia (PAM) worked on the Housing 4.0 competition. Housing 4.0 is a collaboration that is set to bring digital housing design and construction, namely the digital IBS technique, to the forefront of Malaysian housing. Housing is a critical issue, especially within the Malaysian landscape as there is a mismatch between demand and supply.
We are at a critical phase where we must address the expectations and reality of housing to ensure the sustainability of current living conditions.
The competition brief included standard criteria such as the size of site area, location, development type and density, plinth area, building setbacks, total units with size and mix, efficiency, residents and commercial facilities, GBI rating, and parking requirements.
However, the judges sought out to look for one common criterion: the humanising aspect of each proposed design.
Eddie Chan, Executive Director of Gamuda Land, posed the question, “How do we humanise it?”
“I think efficiency needs to be counterbalanced by things that are related to the user and the inhabitants. How will these individuals be taken care of as far as their physical, emotional and communal needs?”
Judge Ar. Ezumi Harzani Ismail was not only looking for attractive proposals but rather, how commercially viable they’d be in terms of buildability and constructability. “We want to see how digital IBS system can assist the design and be the current or future solution to the housing scheme,” he said.
This creative collaboration led by PAM’s Housing 4.0 Project Team Leader, Ar. Ang Chee Cheong and Gamuda IBS’ General Manager, Mr. Tan Ek Khai, attracted a total of 111 registrations with 74 submissions, all with very vast and creative proposals. Based on the criteria, the judges filtered the proposals to select the finalists.
For some of the finalists, affordability was the crucial issue tackled in their proposals for Housing 4.0. For others, it included the evolving needs of inhabitants, encouraging communities, flexible design, quality enhancement of the space, and sustainability.
Director of Hijjas Kasturi Associates, Ar. Serina Hijjas said, “We want to give them this idea that they are living in a terrace house above in the sky.”
“We could have a piece of land that’s up vertically in the air, and we’ll be buying that piece of land. We’ll be able to build upon it as our families grow. If we have this sort of space, we can change how we live internally,” she explained.
Adjacently, Ar. Ary Indra, Principal of Aboday said,” I’m imagining that one day, we will be able to compose our own vocabulary in designing vertical housing.”
Assistant Professor of the National University of Singapore, Simone Chung would like to see different ways of thinking. More specifically for the longer-term stage and the life cycle of a building as well as its inhabitants.
“Housing 4.0 has given the architects, as well as Gamuda IBS a chance to collaborate on a very interesting level where ideas are generated and paired up with our IBS technology,” said Devendran Krishnamoorthy, General Manager of Gamuda Land.
The winners met both the competition’s criterias and checked boxes off the judge’s criteria. Housing 4.0 has achieved its objectives by showcasing innovation in building future homes by harnessing digital tools.
On the final day of judging, the finalists were tasked to present their projects in front of the judges. With careful deliberation of up to six hours, the judges probed participants with tough questions on their design ideas and constructability. And on the 10th of September 2019, the winners were announced amongst industry players and members of the media at The Circle, Publika KL.