Winners announced: Penang Bay International Ideas Competition

George Town, 15 March 2021 – The Penang State Government has announced the top prize winners of the Penang Bay International Ideas Competition. The competition was launched in August 2020 to invite innovative ideas from professionals of all disciplines worldwide to transform the Penang Bay area—including the George Town and Butterworth waterfronts.

Read: Transforming George Town and Butterworth’s waterfronts into a new economic zone

Chief Minister of Penang, YAB Tuan Chow Kon Yeow, said that the successful conclusion of the competition would impact the future of Penang Bay, and that the next phase of the programme would involve careful consideration and implementation of plans for the new economic and sustainable development goal (SDG)-compliant zone.

He added, “The ultimate vision for Penang Bay is to transform the George Town and Butterworth’s waterfronts into an SDG-compliant zone powered by Green, digital and creative industries. It is our aim to have Penang Bay listed as an SDG city zone to unlock opportunities and scale up the initiative. It would be the first in Malaysia and an opportunity to transform the urbanisation process for Penang in a more sustainable manner. The ideas competition has given the state much to think about while moving forward, as we crystalise the development plan for the Penang Bay zone.”

Speaking at the announcement, Jagdeep Singh Deo, executive councillor of the Penang State Government for Local Government, Housing, Town and Country Planning, said, “The response was extremely positive. We received over 5,000 downloads of the competition brief from 94 countries and had 79 submissions from 20 countries. Thirty-six were shortlisted in a blind judging process by a technical committee, and their submissions were then assessed by our international jury.”

Hamdan Abdul Majeed, Managing Director of Think City, added, “The winners had been selected against four criteria: the first was design quality; the second was the embodiment of the SDGs; the third was the economic potential of the ideas; and the fourth was the presentation quality.”

The top three winners (in respective order) are:

• Qhawarizmi Norhisham and Yasmin Rahman of Qhawarizmi Architects from Selangor, Malaysia (Entry 172)
• Hui Ting Wong, Helen Claire Carter, Kulkiran Bedi, Sikkharini Cintantyadwisthi and Zixuan Xiong from Bartlett School of Planning, University College London in the United Kingdom (Entry 268)
• Aiman Al Fahmi Bin Abdul Kashaf, Aieyeesha Binti Aidi Dr Na’asah Nasrudin and Aareena Binti Aidi from Arkitek Kashaf and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Malaysia (Entry 247)

– Construction+ Online

Source: Think City