Latest news on 1MDB..."1 MDB will announce the winner soon...KLIFD Master Plan", I was checking out their website,and noted that,they have stated the names of foreign Master Planners for a competition ,on the Master Plan for Bandar Malaysia ( a massive redevelopment project in Sungai Besi,KL ) and KL International Financial District is underway. According to 1MDB the winner will be announced soon.Was the competition open to all urban planning consultants internationally and locally or was it " by special invitation only" ?
The statement on their web site stated, "The design competition for a Master Planner has attracted the worlds best"-( including amongst others Foster and Partners,Sasaki,BDP,Marchado and Silvetti... ) I suspect that people in 1MDB did not think local consultants were good enough to be invited for this prestigious competition after all, its to showcase Malaysia's development and attract foreign investors as the center of International Finance...
What is disappointing though is, why wasn't any local Urban Planning firms invited ? ( or there was an invitation-but i missed it-if so my apologies ) But judging from the statement and the info that i got from their homepage,the competition is solely based on by invitation only.The prize money must be substantial for such firms to come to enter this competition. But why not invite local firms to participate,im sure we would be more than willing to enter even if the money was insignificant. I entered a competition for KL Local Plan,where the top 10 winners were given a token sum.
After all,the purpose of a competition is to generate creative ideas.A few years ago I was in Singapore and managed to view a competition for the development of Marina Bay,Singapore. From the "open" competition,the top ten winners exhibited their work and amongst them were firms from Singapore,there was even one from a group of Bangladesh lecturers residing in Singapore.
Why not open the competition to all firms,and give the winners a token sum for their efforts and the overall winner a chance to be the Master Planner. It would be a great PR exercise for 1MDB and at the same time give a chance for local planning firms to showcase their ideas,and who knows there might even be a local winner,whose idea is way ahead of the competitors ? Even if no Malaysian firm won the competition the interest generated on Bandar Malaysia n KLIFD would have been invaluable.
Where is the spirit of Malaysia Boleh ? or we are only boleh after the white masters have given their ideas ?
Wednesday, 18 May 2011
Monday, 16 May 2011
Any idea where this is ?
Sunday, 15 May 2011
Urban Planners : or Town Planners...
Dear Town / Urban Planners, dont you think its about time we are known as Urban Planners rather than Town Planners. The term Urban somehow reflect the scale/complexity of challenges that we as urban planners have to face in carrying out our task.
New areas of specialization have been born through the urban planning profession as a result of a more urbanized and global world.We have Urban Management,Urban Design,and most Planning Schools in the world now days have named their program Urban Planning rather than Town Planning.The word urban defines a more built environment intervention than town planning which seems to have a very limited scope or give a very limited impression to the kind of task that we do.
Some may argue whats in a name,it does not matter,as long as we know what we do and that we do it well.This argument does not recognize that the world has changed and that changes take place at a speed that is sometimes beyond our comprehension.For example there are many of us who still thinks that the core business of planners is to design a layout,sorry folks,there just as many surveyors and architects for whom doing or designing a layout is not a problem,and before the enforcement of Act 172have been doing it anyways.We are way beyond sub-division and if some still feel strongly about this,well...we will never get the recognition we deserve.
The government has recognized the contribution that we make in nation building.This can be credited to a few individuals that have gone way beyond their duties,in educating the powers to be on the usefulness of Urban Planning in national Planning,but more needs to be done.Name changed would be a god start.
New areas of specialization have been born through the urban planning profession as a result of a more urbanized and global world.We have Urban Management,Urban Design,and most Planning Schools in the world now days have named their program Urban Planning rather than Town Planning.The word urban defines a more built environment intervention than town planning which seems to have a very limited scope or give a very limited impression to the kind of task that we do.
Some may argue whats in a name,it does not matter,as long as we know what we do and that we do it well.This argument does not recognize that the world has changed and that changes take place at a speed that is sometimes beyond our comprehension.For example there are many of us who still thinks that the core business of planners is to design a layout,sorry folks,there just as many surveyors and architects for whom doing or designing a layout is not a problem,and before the enforcement of Act 172have been doing it anyways.We are way beyond sub-division and if some still feel strongly about this,well...we will never get the recognition we deserve.
The government has recognized the contribution that we make in nation building.This can be credited to a few individuals that have gone way beyond their duties,in educating the powers to be on the usefulness of Urban Planning in national Planning,but more needs to be done.Name changed would be a god start.
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