Architecture: Engineering the nation’s future

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Banking on the ‘NEXT’ generation of architects

The ‘future’ is something which manifests nowhere more potently than in our cities and in terms of architecture, the next generation of architects will play the biggest part in a central role of city-making.

“Architecture plays a prominent role when land starts becoming a scarce resource.

All our designs are either going to expand upwards or outwards,” said Mark Curtis, a young architect who is currently working for Arkitek KDI Sdn Bhd.

Curtis graduated from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia in year 2008 and has since, won numerous awards from different competitions, slowly making a name for himself.

BizHive Weekly caught up with him and got his view from a ‘Gen-Y’ perspective.

“We are in an exciting era because there are numerous projects under the five economic corridors which require extensive architecture study and research.

It will be the way forward for the new generation of architects,” he commented.

“In the near future, I believe buildings will be designed in a prefabricated ways.

This will lead to crossing boundaries between architecture, product design and interior design, which respond to different environments and climate,” he said.

He further pointed out that technological-wise, the advancement of computers had indeed accelerated the industry going forward but there were also other possibilities that were not technologically determined that could be equally powerful.

“This is why I keep looking at the gaps in technology, into places where it doesn’t get and where off the shelf solutions won’t suffice.

I normally take into consideration the traditional way of architecture designs that will usually give me great ideas,” said Curtis.

As the building industry in Malaysia is getting more and more competitive with local firms taking the lead, he pointed out that the recent onset of ‘green technology’ had given chances to the new generation of architects to come out something different.

“I believe ‘green’ development is the way forward, by looking into the field of eco-design as it can help provide practical and creative solutions to complex problems, especially with respect to sustainability.” “

Sustainable green buildings are able to improve the quality of human life, whilst maintaining the capacity of the ecosystem at local as well as global levels.

It can make efficient use of available resources, have significant operational savings and increase workplace productivity,” he explained.

On the other hand, he also highlighted the architecture design of ‘kampung houses’ in Sarawak gave him the basic design ideas for tropical climate country.

The orientation, natural ventilation, daylighting/sun shading and habitat are the four basic approaches in building a house or any other building.

“It is important to retain the old heritage buildings in Sarawak as it is also a form of great architecture piece that will educate the future generations of architects.

I would like to explore more and see how I can make it better for the people,” he concluded.

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