Exploring different architectural approaches to ‘place-making’

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 14): This year's Datum: KL international architectural design conference kicked off today with the theme “Place” at the KL Convention Centre, which focuses on the exploration of place in architecture.

Datum is organised by the Malaysian Institute of Architects (PAM) in conjunction with the 5th consecutive Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival (KLAF) 2015. The conference will continue tomorrow.

According to PAM president and organising chairman Mohd Zulhemlee An: “The theme ‘place’ refers to the idea of space that has specific time and character in a specific cultural and physical context. This year, we like to explore the different approaches of ‘place-making’ that will render the place unique.”

While the creation of places, “explored through the expression of history, memory and nostalgia, ecology and environment, technology, and consumerism”, has gained converging interests from a multi-disciplinary perspective, the role of architects as place-makers has taken diverse tangents, wherein arises contradictions and complexities. For some, architecture serves to reinforce the identity of places, while others believe in the creation and reinvention of identity for the place, said Zulhemlee.

He added that place-making’ in today’s context is instrumental in defining how we live, play and work, and ‘place-making’ also plays a role in creating collective memories in our society.

The two-day conference provides a platform for the discourse on the role of architecture in place-making and features a line-up of speakers from Malaysia (Ken Wong and John Ding), Australia (Jan van Schaik), Italy (Massimo Lepore), the US (Marlon Blackwell and Meryati Johari), Hong Kong (Rocco Yim), Singapore (Ling Hao), Germany (Eike Roswag), Japan (Shingo Masuda), China (Doreen Heng Liu) and the UK (Ole Smith).

Datum, which started 13 years ago with about 350 participants, has now grown into a premier design conference in the region attended by about 2,800 architects from Malaysia and other countries, said Zulhemlee.

“The conference is an event for architects to reenergise themselves and to dare to dream again after listening to speakers from all over the world, with different backgrounds to share their works, their philosophies and thoughts on architecture.”

The design conference, he said, has over the years been able to identify up and coming architects before they become household names, and he believed that this is the strength of Datum, which he hoped will continue.

Meanwhile, Zulhemlee said that PAM has embarked on a joint venture with DOMA College to form the PAM DOMA training centre to improve knowledge of construction industry personnel. The training centre will provide technical training as well as professional certificates for inspector of works (IOWs), previously known as clerks of works, in anticipation of the requirement to register all IOWs with Board of Architects Malaysia (LAM) in the near future. The training centre is scheduled to start operations in October this year.