Back again, bigger and boasting two award categories for property developers and architecture firms plus green buildings, the BCI Asia Awards recognised the top 10 most active firms recently.
“This year marks the 8th annual BCI Asia Awards being organised. Since we first started in 2005, we have given recognition to 10 of the most active architecture firms in the seven Asian countries where we operate, namely Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines and Hong Kong,” said Kelvin Yong, country manager of BCI Asia in Malaysia.
Yong added that since last year, BCI Asia introduced a new award category for property developers which is based on “the aggregate value of projects”.
“This is a record year which saw Arkitek MAA Sdn Bhd and BEP Akitek Sdn Bhd winning the award for the seventh time each. The other winners are SA Architects Sdn Bhd and VERITAS Architects Sdn Bhd, both winning for the sixth time and Akipraktis, winning for the fifth time.
“It was a first win for both ArchiCentre Sdn Bhd and BL Tay Architect from Penang. The rest of the winners in the architecture category that have won three times and below are ATSA Architects Sdn Bhd, KAZ Akitek Sdn Bhd and NWKA Architects Sdn Bhd,” Yong revealed.
In the property developers’ category, Dijaya Corporation Bhd, IJM Land Berhad, IOI Properties Berhad, Mah Sing Group Berhad, Nadayu Properties Bhd, NAZA TTDI Sdn Bhd, Perbadanan Kemajuan Negeri Selangor (PKNS), Sime Darby Property Bhd, SP Setia Berhad and Sunway Berhad emerged in the top 10 most active list.
Besides recognising leading developers and architecture firms, the awards also aim to recognise firms that will shape the built environment of the future, and their impact, both socially and on the environment.
“A few years ago, we started a category for the FuturArc Prize and the FuturArc Green Leadership Award. The FuturArc prize is an international competition for green building designs while the Green Leadership Award, started in 2008, is an international award recognising the contribution of architects to sustainable design or green built projects.
“This year, we had a winner from Malaysia for the Green Leadership Award, an international award for the different countries that we operate in, with the winner being ArchiCentre Sdn Bhd,” he shared.
To further integrate the green agenda, next year’s criteria for the awards would centre around green projects.
“They need to be certified green either through green-rated projects according to Malaysia’s Green Building Index (GBI), Australia’s Green Star, Singapore’s Green Mark or United State’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) green ratings,” Yong elaborated.
BCI Asia chairman, Dr. Matthi as Krups shared that this year’s Top 10 Award winners demonstrated the increasing “innovation for great designs and long-term solutions for sustainability”.
“The fact that buildings are responsible for as much as one third of global greenhouse gas emissions and 40 per cent of global energy used, is starting to be increasingly acknowledged by market players around the world. This is a trend BCI is happy to witness in Asia as well.”
