MSSA

ICW 2016

2016 once again sees the Construction Industry Development Board (CIDB) inviting the Malaysian Structural Steel Association (MSSA) to collaborate with CIDB as a partner in participating in the ICW. With the support of its members and sponsors, MSSA participated in five free seminars and a prize award ceremony. The three seminars which span 2 days of the ICW were well-attended by about 250 participants.

FREE SEMINAR – MR. PHILLIP DOYLE, SEMINAR ON NEW TECHNOLOGY COMES TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF HOUSING

Mr Phillip Doyle holds a degree in Building Science which he obtained from the University of New South Wales quite some time back. Since then he has held site management positions in Australia, the United States of America and England.

On coming to Malaysia, his spell with MBf led him to work on a major project at Port Dickson where one of his duties included managing the firm transcrete. This is an MBf subsidiary which manufactures precast concrete products.

Phillip Doyle has always adopted an innovative approach to the construction of his buildings. Using both factory-made and site-cast precast concrete elements, he is one of the pioneer users of the slip form technique for the service cores of high rise buildings.

Firmly believing that the issue of housing shortages facing most developing countries can only be overcome by applying innovative building systems, Phillip focusses his talk entitled ‘Affordable Housing in Non-earthquake and Earthquake Zones using Precast Concrete’ to alleviate this issue.

His talk began with him citing the advantages of using fibre reinforced plastic in terms of its low operational cost and strong resistance to earthquakes. Accompanying this was a short video presentation to demonstrate its operations. Included into his package are business plan details to favour small medium enterprises involvement in the project, as well as transfer programmes to help train the building consultants involved.

Judging from the overflow of listeners to his talk, Phillip’s talk has certainly captured the interest of several visitors to the ICW.

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FREE SEMINAR - MR. SELVAKUMAR KRISHNAN SEMINAR ON GREEN BUILDING EXPERIENCES IS THE CHALLENGE WORTH IT?

Ir Selvakumar Krishnan has been an engineer in the construction industry for over 25 years. Currently, he is with Ranhill Bersekutu Sdn. Bhd., a leading multi-disciplinary consultancy which provides comprehensive engineering, project management and ecologically sustainable design/green technology services.

As a member of the Malaysia Green Building Council as well as a Green Building Index (GBI) facilitator, Mr Selvakumar has been involved in several green buildings projects that were all successfully completed since 2014 up to date. Naturally, he is an ardent proponent in encouraging to ‘buy’ green ideas.

The objective of this Ecobuild presentation is to disseminate the Green Building Knowledge to a wider audience. This is necessary as he feels the initiative towards a lower carbon society is the responsibility of each individual.

Essentially, a green building is an environmentally sustainable building, designed, constructed and operated to minimise the total environmental impacts by finding the balance between homebuilding and the sustainable environment. It refers to both a structure and the use of processes that are environmentally responsible and resource-efficient throughout a building's life-cycle: from siting to design, construction, operation, maintenance, renovation, and demolition. Its main purpose is to reduce the overall impact of the built environment on human health and the natural environment.

With the proper synergistic design, individual green building technologies may work together to produce a greater cumulative effect. Using renewable resources of wind, hydro, solar, biomass, geothermal and ocean, would result in clean energy with zero CO₂ emissions. Aesthetically, green architecture ensures the building is designed in harmony with the natural features and resources surrounding the site.

Presently, the number of green buildings is ever increasing. Local councils are now making this compliance mandatory for new schemes. As a signatory to the Paris accord, Malaysia intends to reduce its greenhouse emission intensity of GDP by 45% by 2030. According to the Green Building Index (GBI) Malaysia website, as of 2015 over 300 buildings in Malaysia have been certified. At this juncture, it is perhaps useful to recall and refresh the experiences gathered from a project implementation perspective.

International research confirms that green buildings consume less energy, less water and generate less waste to create a healthy and productive environment for all. In Malaysia, although this Green Building is already being implemented, with enhanced Government initiatives the rate could be much better. Though the challenges present are numerous, with concerted effort and collaboration, they are surmountable. General ignorance of industrial players as well as the average layman, are key as the most obvious obstacles to its implementation

Thus, with all the industrial people involved in the construction industry, the developers, State Authorities, the professionals, building constructers, building maintenance officers, right down to the building occupants as the intended targets for this seminar, it is Mr Selvakumar’s personal hope that every effort will be made by every human towards implanting green building. With collective measurable efforts, he hopes this approach will lead to a sustainable environment.

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