Nurturing young architects

Facing a generation gap within the architecture industry, BlueScope Lysaght, a maker of steel building materials, has decided to encourage young architects in Malaysia by establishing the inaugural Malaysia Young Architect Award (MYAA).

Open to all practising architects below the age of 35, the company strongly believes that recognising and rewarding exceptional local talent will ignite their enthusiasm and raise the overall standards of excellence within the country.

There is an abundance of architecture talent in Malaysia, but a gap exists in terms of experience and exposure. Many have revolutionary ideas when it comes to concepts, but are limited by industry demands which are still rather conservative.

We are hoping that the MYAA will be a platform for these up and coming talents to showcase their ability and influence clients and developers to be open to more progressive and modern designs, said BlueScope Lysaght Malaysia president Heon Chee Shyong.

Underlining the prestige of the award, BlueScope Lysaght is allocating a prize of RM20,000 for the winner as well as a RM5,000 prize for the Top Choice award, based on online votes.

The organisers have also recruited a jury comprising world-renowned architects and designers to judge the winning design.

True to the spirit of MYAA, the jury panel itself varies in terms of age and design philosophies, originating from Australia, China, Bangkok, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The jury panel includes: Australias Environa Studio principal architect and director K.A. Tone Wheeler, PI Architect principal Tan Pei Ing, Dezignwerkz Asia chief executive officer Jasmeet Singh Sidhu, Kun Lim Architect design principal Kun Lim, Thailands GreenDwell sustainable design director Siritip Harntaweewongsa and Chinas MAD Architects founding principal Ma Yansong.

According to Jasmeet, the local architecture industry is competitive regionally, but improvements can be made to raise levels of excellence.

Malaysia has around 2,000 architects registered with Lembaga Arkitek Malaysia but there are another 2,000 or so who have yet to obtain their licence to practice on their own.

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Nurturing young architects