Prize Award Ceremony MSSA/CIDB Open Ideas Competition For Students 2017 Themed Youth Dome In Steel (Youdo)
Impressive, innovative, and integrational. This year’s CIDB/MSSA Students’ Open Ideas Competition (“OIC”) is back with irrevocably the strongest and the most exciting contenders the competition has ever seen to-date. With the title ‘Youth Dome in Steel (“YouDo”)’ in mind, this competition has brought together students of both architectural and civil engineering backgrounds to join forces in showcasing their collaborative abilities to dream up aesthetically functional and yet feasibly realistic structures of steel domes. In line with the aim of the competition, anticipation was high throughout the entire process, whereby each and every one of the participating teams had shown great teamwork and remarkable perseverance in their effort to achieve their desired ends.
The rules were simple; participating groups of students had to produce a building design surrounding the theme of dome structures with steel as its main structural material. Unlike previous competitions, this years’ contenders were required to design steel domes that function as a youth-centric facility focusing on both character- and nation-building resolutions; an aptly chosen emphasis that was meant to encourage young participants to contribute to the betterment of their own generation.
In order to commemorate the success of the event, the Prize Award Ceremony was held on 13 April 2017 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre, officiated by YBhg Dato’ Sri Ir Roslan bin Md Taha as the MSSA President, and attended by Prof Dr. Azlan Adnan as the Chairman of the OIC Committee, Dato’ Ir Ahmad Asri bin Abdul Hamid as the Chief Executive of CIDB, deans of the participating universities’ architectural and engineering departments, members of the Education Committee of MSSA, judges, supervisors of the OIC, as well as undergraduate participants of the competition. In his welcoming speech, the MSSA President acknowledged the diligent effort and tireless hard work portrayed by the participating teams, exclaiming immense confidence in the hopes that the great stake of the industry lies within their grasp. The highest of gratitude were also given to the sponsors of the competition, including to CIDB Malaysia, AME Engineering Industries Sdn. Bhd., Bina Puri Holdings Bhd., Ann Yak Siong Hardware Sdn. Bhd., as well as Siam Yamato Steel Co. Ltd. without which the competition would not have been successful.
As tension builds and anticipation rises to the utmost high among members of the audience waiting with bated breath, the climax of the OIC prize-award ceremony came as a burst of excited shouts, mingled with a generously loud round of applause, roared through the hall as Team 20011 from UTM was announced the overall champion. Bringing home the main prize of a whopping RM10,000 courtesy of CIDB, a challenge trophy courtesy of MSSA, and not to mention immense bragging rights, this team from UTM definitely deserved to be feeling on top of the world. When asked whether the result was expected, the ever enthusiastic, pink-faced winners responded confidently in unison, “Definitely, yes! We set our aims to be the best from the very beginning. We knew what we wanted and we knew what it takes to bag the title, and so we went all out for it.” Ambitious and refusing to settle for less, these young visionaries are definitely a force to look out for.
Boasting a dome structural design based on a highly innovative hexagonal concept, the winning team, consisting of six charismatic young students, had managed to gain a unanimous affirmative from the panel of judges who described their building design as exceptionally out-of-the-box and worthy of being the brainchild of experienced practicing professionals. Having chosen the university town of Nusajaya, Johor, as their site, the winning structure was designed to bring students from surrounding universities together at a strategic meeting hub for social, educational, and entrepreneurial events in a way that no part of the building is wasted without a function. In terms of sustainability and being environmentally-friendly; these brilliant students had thought of everything, including the implementation of both the IBS and rain-harvesting systems. It is no wonder that only high praises were heard of when it came to this particular submission; the best of which included the fact that initial talks were already being made to turn this project into reality.
In fact, a quick word with the judges revealed that this years’ submissions had exceeded beyond their wildest expectations, and that they attributed this success to the capability of the students in creating building designs as a collaborative effort between the two disciplines of architecture and civil engineering, instead of treating them as mutually exclusive. As commented by the Head Judge of this competition, -, there is an unfortunate lack of integration between the two disciplines in the practicing world. “Currently, we mostly see engineers supporting the existing architectural creativity of building designs resulting in a not-so-seamless process. However, a stronger dynamic could be achieved should architects and engineers combine forces from the early stages of designing structures.” Furthermore, the need to comply with the clients’ needs serves as an undeniable restriction when it comes to the practice of the mentioned disciplines. Hence, the advantage of these students being given the chance to showcase their integrational workmanship under unrestricted circumstances in this competition has introduced us to a higher level of possibilities and potential for the future of the industry.
Indeed, the building design of the runner-up team was not that far-off from that of the first prize winner in terms of creativity and integrational inventions. With a flexible building design of floating domes importing the idea of tensegrity, Team 20008 from UTM bagged home RM7,000 courtesy of AEISB, proving themselves to be capable of adapting the existing idea into a more complex and yet feasible building design that is worth looking into. On the other hand, the title of the third prize winners went to Team 20002 from UiTM. With an ambitious design of underwater portable dome structure that is meant to act as an attraction for coral-enthusiasts and scholars, the third prize winners managed to score themselves RM5,000, sponsored by Bina Puri Holdings Bhd. Meanwhile, two consolation prizes worth RM3,000 each, sponsored by AYS Ventures Bhd. and SYS, respectively, were also awarded to student participants from UIAM and UiTM for their achievement in being in the Top 5. Needless to say, contenders of the next competition have a lot to live up to.
The 11th MSSA/CIDB Students’ Open Ideas Competition concluded on a high note. It is with the highest hope that this competition will continue to encourage young and talented students to unearth their hidden potentials, and it is with utmost confidence that the President of the MSSA exclaimed that the competition will continue to be held with the support of CIDB in years to come.
