Husband and wife team, Encik Jaihar Jailani Ismail and Puan Noor Syahidah Abdullah have clinched the grand prize of TRANSEAT - The MRT Putrajaya Line Underground Stations Bench Design Competition, bringing home RM10,000 in prize money. The winners of TRANSEAT were announced in a simple ceremony held at the Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) headquarters on 3 May 2021. The competition, which ran from 1 June 2020 until 31 July 2020, was carried out in collaboration with MRM and supported by PEREKA. A total of 352 participants, with many organising themselves into groups, submitted a total of 569 designs. The participants were made up of professionals, students and even general members of the public.
Handing out the prizes to the winners were MRT Corp Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Zarif Hashim. Also present at the event were MRT Corp’s MRT Putrajaya Line Project Director Dato’ Amiruddin Ma’aris, Majlis Rekabentuk Malaysia (MRM) Director Encik Sulaiman Arshad and Persatuan Pereka Perindustrian Malaysia (PEREKA) Vice President Encik Zafri Zakaria Merican.
The competition was organised by MRT Corp to obtain the best design to be adopted for the benches of the MRT Putrajaya Line’s eight underground stations by tapping the talents and creativity of all Malaysians. Commenting about their win, Jaihar and Syahidah expressed their gratitude to MRT Corp, MRM and PEREKA for the opportunity to put forward their design ideas and philosophy, through the creation of the Infinity Bench design. “The Infinity Bench is an inclusive social bench that promotes design, art and culture,” said Jaihar. The design by freelance industrial designer Jaihar and academician Noor Syahidah also took into consideration the many functional aspects needed for a bench in an MRT station.
The first runner up was Encik Muhmmad Nazli Karamazaman whose traditional craft motives bench design won him RM 7,000.00 in prize money. Meanwhile, Mr Ng Wai How and Ms Yap Qiang Mei, who formed the team WHDY, took the second runner-up position. Their X-Seat bench design, based on the theme “Vibrancy”, won them RM5,000.00. For the best submission by a student category, Encik Kamarul Azizi Kamarul Azhan, a student from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, takes home RM5,000 for his design Koreusi. His design was based on the theme “Moulding Forms”.
The Competition’s Stage One evaluation was conducted on 29 September 2020 with the panel of judges comprising representatives from MRT Corp, MRM and PEREKA as well as MMC-Gamuda Joint Ventures Sdn Bhd as the PY Line Turnkey Contractor. Their job was to pick the Top 10 submissions with the highest scores which were shortlisted for Stage Two evaluation. They looked at the concept, design innovation and creativity as well as functionality. In addition, the quality, material and construction, together with the cost were also scrutinised, in order to select the best designs. The Stage One also included online voting by the employees of MRT Corp to select their top 10 designs. The accumulated points from the scoring by the judges and the employees determined the 10 finalists. The final judging was held on 15 December 2020 at the MRM Innovative Hall in Bukit Jalil where the finalists presented their designs to a panel of judges comprising of MRT Corp, MRM and PEREKA leadership team.
Source: MyMRT
