DR SHARIFAH S S MAHDZAR

“GREAT SEGGET FORUM 2017”

Great Segget Forum was held in Johor Bahru, at Sungai Segget (the famous historical river of Johor Bahru) on 21st Aug 2017. The event was organised in conjunction with ‘N30N’ The National Students Architectural Workshop 2017, a collaboration of event between UTM Department of Architecture, Johor Bahru Municipality (MBJB), Iskandar Regional Development Authority (IRDA) and Malaysian Institute of Architects  (PAM). This community-led initiative was conducted by Dr Sharifah S S Mahdzar from UTM, for the final engagement with IRDA, which is lead by Maimunah Jaafar, Head of Planning and Compliance.

Featuring “Goreng Pisang Session” (‘a discourse session with Banana Fritters’), is a platform through which informal discourses among academicians, professionals, authorities, and the public can be made possible for them to voice out opinions and comments, to give input for the future and better development of our beloved and prestigious Sungai Segget, ‘the heart of Johor Bahru City” – where the initial life of the city began.

Aiming to bring back the soul of Sungai Segget as one of the major tourist destinations of Johor, the IRDA’s proposed plan optimises road design to allow 60% pedestrian and 40% vehicular access which generates more economic activities to attract visitors and encourage landowners to develop their businesses in line with the project.  The forum has allowed IRDA to engage public directly to get their feed backs on the design of the landscapes in the rehabilitation process of Sungai Segget which will commence in early year 2018.

Overall, the operation of Great Segget Forum was a successful event managed with much dedication and tireless help by UTM students and the organising committee by the workshop director Amirul Hakim Jamil, who is a PhD candidate at UTM. Despite the shorthanded of manpower and constraint budget, the event was well executed.

In the realm of built environment and urban design, it is hoped that the students have learned and acquired some new knowledge about the research and its importance. The forum event indirectly have given some hands on experience to the students after all the short exercises they have had to undertake in the operation of the research by doing some primary observation of people, together with the compilation of the analysis materials they did for the final presentation.

My words to the students after the event ; “Bravo team, and especially to David Nee and An Qi for the last round we had had in my office the night before. I know it very well that we, architects would be at our best in the last seconds!!! Corina Lim, I don’t think I need to mention much here, your commitment and responsibility in the final execution of the event is magnificent” ( Dr Sharifah, 2017)

http://www.theiskandarian.com/web/segget-updates-community-based-design-landscape/

In conjunction with KL Design Month on October 2016, DBKL in collaboration with UTM & PAM had organised the second series of an annual architecture exhibition at Kuala Lumpur’s city hall. Due to the succeed of the previous first program, the aim of this participatory activities was still letting researchers, stakeholders & general publics in the design making process.

Ampang road in Kuala Lumpur is a well-known street to the tourists from all over the world coming to visit Malaysia. This is evident as Ampang Road is home to Malaysia’s national icon, the tallest building in the world, i.e. Petronas Twin Tower. Inevitably the road is dear to all fellow Malaysians from all walks of life. As such, the street is famous primarily for its commercial, corporate as well as ambassadorial activities – all of which portrays the vital image of Kuala Lumpur as the capital city of Malaysia. Ampang Road, therefore, positions itself and it is suited to be recognised as the ‘Great Street’ in the Greater Kuala Lumpur.

The above raises several questions vital to the integrated use between the public and private entities on Ampang Road. Have the conventional sustainable measures taken fulfilled the social, environmental and economic aspects of the development of the street within the surrounding context? Would Ampang Road be eligible to be called as a Great Street able to cater for people from all walks of life – the general public, in particular, the youngsters and less fortunate? How sensitive would this fast growing development of the street be to the presence of these ‘other’ society – those in a way have been socially excluded’? Social exclusion in society has much been debated. From the aspect of streets uses for people, some argue that the true public entity of streets (in integrating its use between the public and private) often been neglected, and given lesser attention in public dialogue than economic and environmental sustainability.

In order to understand and immerse in the current trend of the housing problems, our research works has attended the Khazanah Mega Trend Forum 2016 in seeking the current debates and research in Malaysia. The event was held on 26th & 27th September 2016 at The Grand Ballroom, Level 3, Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. The Khazanah Megatrends Forum (KMF) has become one of the highlights of the year at Khazanah. Held annually preceding Khazanah’s strategy and business planning cycle, KMF brings together experts and thought leaders to discuss the main mega trends, as well as to address topical matters of interest.

The Forum entered its 12th annual instalment in 2016. It will continue to be a platform for the gathering of Malaysian corporate leaders, policy makers, think tanks and practitioners from the public and private sectors as well as civil society. It is well attended by over 500 senior leaders. The Forum discussion covered four main perspectives: Macro and Markets, Firms and Transformation, Growth and Development, People and Leadership

The Khazanah Research Institute is a not-for-profit organisation sponsored by Khazanah Nasional Berhad. The objective of the Institute is to undertake analyses and research on the pressing issues of the nation and, based on that research, provide actionable policy recommendations. Khazanah Research Institute started its operations in 2014.

Khazanah Nasional Berhad (Khazanah) is the strategic investment fund of the Government of Malaysia. Khazanah holds and manages selected commercial assets of the Government and undertakes strategic investments on behalf of the nation. We are involved in sectors such as power, telecommunications, finance, healthcare, aviation, infrastructure, leisure & tourism, and property, amongst others.

In the past 12 years since its inception, the Khazanah Mega Trend Forum has discussed themes ranging from a shifting global economic climate to a reclamation of the global ‘commons’, a new context where uncertainty is normality to the need to generate growth with inclusion in an age of paradox, and most recently, the need to harness creative disruption to unlock inclusive innovation. In those discussions, the KMF has always emphasised the need to move beyond the maximisation of shareholder value to the maximisation of stakeholder value – in this case, the nation, the firm and the individual.

Thus, in keeping with the tradition of KMF, panel discussions on “Geography as Destiny – Reaping the Dividends of Good Stewardship: The Political Economy of Location, Environment, Demographics” will continue to be organised along four perspectives: on how the various markets are affected, what does the theme mean to firms and society in general, and what are the imperatives of leadership? In addition, the KMF will delve deeper into the theme via special panel sessions on Innovation as well as Ethics. The programme and theme will be further enhanced and rounded out by the various Special Addresses and Luncheon Addresses.

In KMF 2015, we explored how by harnessing Creative Disruption, we could unlock the power of inclusive innovation to better understand and improve lives and livelihoods. Indeed, one of the greatest contributions of innovation and technology in an increasingly complex and rapidly shifting world is to helps us better make sense of our world. From big data to virtual reality to social enterprise to machine learning, this panel explores how innovation and technology helps us better understand, and more importantly, empathise with our fellow human beings and our shared global commons.