Archiprix SEA 2016

March 1, 2017

by Tay Tze Yong

Part-time lecturer at LICT, Borneo Campus

Archiprix SEA is the regional counterpart of Archiprix International, an architectural event held every biannually since 2001 in seven different cities from Europe, Asia, South America and North America. The aim of Archiprix International Hunter Douglas Awards is to stimulate the introduction of starting, talented designers into the world of professional practice. In addition to such an endeavour, Archiprix SEA Hunter Douglas Awards aims to promote the awareness of good architectural design in the South East Asian region.

The inaugural edition of Archiprix SEA which was held at the Department of Architecture of the National University of Singapore (NUS) in December 2012; the second edition was held at School of Architecture, Building and Design of Taylor’s University in Selangor, Malaysia in October 2014. The latest edition, which is the third edition, it was held from 16 to 19 October 2016 at Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB), Indonesia.

All universities and colleges in the fields of architecture, urban design and landscape within the South East Asia (SEA) region were invited to submit their best two graduation projects to the Archiprix SEA 2016 competition for the theme of ‘Architecture for the Public Good’. The shortlisted finalists travel to Bandung for a four days event as below:

Day 1 – Full day architecture tour around City of Bandung

Day 2 – Workshops for the students participants & supervisor round-table discussions

Day 3 – Workshops, round-table discussion and final presentation by students finalist

Day 4 – Final presentation and award ceremony

Round-table discussion for supervisor – Topics 1: ‘A proper diet for Architectural Education in Southeast Asia’ which we shared the ‘ways’ of our respective schools in focusing on the idea of conceptualizing the future of the architectural education, the coursework, the syllabus, the issue of ‘colonization in education’, globalization vs localization, particularly on the architectural education within the SEA region. The discussion was led by Professor Wong Yunn Chii: Head of Department of Architecture, NUS.

Round-table discussion for supervisor – Topics 2: ‘Convivial Public Spaces: Informal practices in public space and what we can do about it as an architect?’ It was led by Dr Heru Poerbo: Head of Graduate Programme of School of Architecture, Planning and Policy Development, ITB. We discussed about the importance of convivial public spaces, issue of ‘undesirable character’, particularly focusing into the informal practices such as street vendors, which seems to be a common sight within SEA region.

A total of 53 best graduation projects were submitted from 27 universities from SEA region. 20 projects from 16 schools were shortlisted. We are the only team from Malaysia and diploma graduate that successfully made it to the final. Our team had to put in so much effort to compete with degree and master graduates. When the going get tough, the tough get going.

The shortlisted scheme was ‘Infill Serikin – For better Public Space’ (by Andy Lau Shan Lok & Chong Yu Yii). The proposition is to design modular structures to be infilled along the market street for public use. Their area of concerns were the issue of border, lacking of public amenities, waster management issue, illegal trading and unattended kids. The five modular structures were security check point, day care centre, waste management centre, light transport service centre and rest stop. The sustainability and cost of the buildings are taken into considerations in the design process. Bidayuh longhouse was analyzed and adopted as part of the design process.

Another submitted scheme was ‘The Vortex – A threshold to Kampung Bako’ (by Louis Ting Kwang Liou & Jason Foi Yong Sien) designing an entrance cum public space to Kampung Bako, in contextualizing to the village public event and interact to the tide level from Bako River.

Yu Yii (Backpack behind) & Andy (backpack in front)

This was my third terms of supervising the students in this competition. I viewed Archiprix SEA as an exchange program for a small local architectural school and to be connected to the outside world, a platform to expose the students in architecture and also a training for me as an educator. I took this as an opportunity to review my teaching method and re-route the architectural education, at least in my design studio. I learned the importance of positioning our roles in addressing the issues of cultural and architectural identity in South East Asian, but not too embrace and celebrating the international influence.

I always have a list of people to thank after the event. Alan Goh and LICT lecturers, Marvin Chung and Gordon Ngu, Jonathan Lee, Lau Chun Leong, Saiful Amry, Lam Choi Suan, Chong Vui Lung and Kristaine Alexander, without any of you, it was impossible for us to make it to Bandung.