International design practice Scott Brownrigg creates a context-appropriate campus for University of Reading’s Malaysia campus in EduCity, on the Iskandar peninsula. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/projects/crafting-spaces-for-higher-education

How do you take a world-class university and replicate its success in the Asia-Pacific region, translating the university’s values and resources into a new and unique environment? This is the question that the design team at Scott Brownrigg faced when working on UK-based University of Reading’s first Southeast Asia campus – located in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. With an ambitious brief to deliver a world-class university design and a learning experience to match, the design team needed to balance the client’s programmatic and spatial requirements with multiple environmental and cultural considerations to deliver a holistic campus design with a strong message of the university brand, adapted to a Malaysian setting.

For both the client and the design team, the overarching goal for the University of Reading Malaysia (UoRM) to become a major hub for higher education in the Asia-Pacific region and reaffirm its position at the forefront of global education became the basis for the overall design of the campus. “The aim was to capture the essence of the UK university, and to translate it into a Southeast Asian context,” says Michael Olliff, Managing Director of Scott Brownrigg.

Scott Brownrigg’s Singapore office worked with Veritas Design Group (the executive architect at the construction stage) to deliver the design concept. The team at Scott Brownrigg chose to emulate some of the major design features of the University’s Whiteknights campus in the UK, while also translating them into a tropical setting, to reinforce the signature UoRM experience for the incoming students. The team based the design of UoRM on a simple forum approach, arranging the main buildings around a heart space to create a nexus of social interactivity for the whole campus. Responding to the local conditions, however, the design team shielded the heart space from the harsh tropical weather with an ETFE cushion roof to permit only a controlled amount of light in to facilitate the growth of the natural planting and enable everyday learning and social activities underneath the canopy.

To further enhance the theme of connectivity, the team at Scott Brownrigg incorporated a series of diagonal ramps across the central forum space to reinforce the idea of a social nexus for the campus. The design team also built a network of suspended bridges to connect the teaching blocks to one another.

The team took to heart the client’s requirement for flexibility within the UoRM’s spaces to allow for the mix of educational facilities to vary overtime. The need for flexibility drove the direct and singular approach for the two parallel teaching wings enclosing the social forum space in the middle. The design team have shielded the two main blocks with an open screen metal cladding that, much like the soaring roof above the forum, serves as solar protection for the teaching wings.

Scott Brownrigg’s response to the context around the campus did not stop at provisions for adequate shading. Taking lessons learned from the investigations of local construction methods and studies of the local climate, the design of UofRM drew inspiration from the traditional Malay house, lifting the mass of the buildings off the ground to allow for natural airflow and for cooling to take place. The design team also provided oversized rainwater gutters and downpipes to account for seasonal downpours and carefully specified metal components for protection against corrosion.

By holistically addressing the environmental, cultural and educational considerations of the project’s unique location and context, the team at Scott Brownrigg was able to deliver a fitting design solution to the new UoRM campus, allowing the university to position its message and brand at a local and an international scale at once.

Michael Olliff expresses his aspiration for UoRM to set new precedents in education in the region and beyond. Says Olliff, “I hope that University of Reading Malaysia will set the benchmark as a model of collaboration where the best creative ideas and teaching methodologies from Asia and Europe are combined to deliver world class educational facilities.”

The latest project in Iskandar Johor by Aedas places emphasis on waterfront living and puts the region on the global radar of luxury real estate. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/projects/setting-a-benchmark-in-coastal-development

Marked to become an international flagship development and a future landmark of the region, the Tebrau Waterfront Residences and Resort Development, positioned advantageously in southern Johor and Tebrau Bay, continues the momentum of the recent developments slated to generate interest from local and global property buyers and raise the bar for premier properties in the immediate region and beyond. The project – initiated in an effort to create a healthy investment climate in Iskandar – follows the success of Puteri Harbour and Medini Precincts in Malaysia and shows a combined effort of developer Greenland Tebrau and international architectural and design practice Aedas to bring high standards of living through a holistic and contextual design approach to the overall master plan.

“We are very privileged to have worked with Greenland Tebrau for such a premier development in Johor Bahru,” says Steven Thor, Executive Director of Aedas and Project Design Director for Tebrau Waterfront Residences and Resort “With thoughtful placement of buildings in relation to orientation, typology, views and phasing, our design has created a new urban oasis that brings out the best of waterfront living.”

Putting an emphasis on coastal living, the first phase of the development, scheduled to be completed in 2019, will comprise high-end residential apartments and villas that will provide direct access to the coastline and enable all residents to enjoy the best of waterfront living. Waterways will also be carved into the land to further increase the development’s proximity to water.

“Aedas’ master plan ensures that every residential unit enjoys the sea view or waterfront view while providing for good quality of privacy,” says Thor, “The tailoring of our design for the local community also guarantees that different typologies of housing, be it villas or town houses, will enjoy the water frontage.”

Other planned elements of the development further accentuate the project’s intrinsic connection to the waterfront and reveal a thoughtful approach that takes into consideration orientation, typology, views and phasing to ensure a successful creation of a new urban oasis. A provision of waterfront promenades along the various retail components and strategic position of the future civic centre at the edge of the waterfront ensure the development’s connectivity to nature within the public sphere. Additionally, a resort hotel with an exclusive marina, located at the Southern edge of the development, secures panoramic sea views, making visual connections to the waterfront a signature staple of Tebrau Waterfront Residences and Resort Development.

Spanning 51 hectares of land and segmented into five phases of development, the township’s comprehensive master plan provides an optimistic outlook for the future of the development in its larger context. “We envision Tebrau Waterfront Residences and Resort as a flagship development in Iskandar, which will act as a benchmark for future developments in the area,” concludes Thor. “The subsequent phases will focus on the commercial and retail quantum of the project. We are currently working actively on them.”