Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri..Maaf Zahir dan Batin..

 

From: PAM Sabah Chapter

 

The 35th Annual General Meeting of PAM Sabah Chapter was held on 07th August 2010, Saturday at 10.0am at the Chapter Mini Auditorium. The AGM was attended by 32 corporate and 1 graduate members.

Ar. Lim Koi Hoe who was appointed as Election Officer earlier on, requested to nominate 3 scrutinizers to assist in vote counting. Ar. Ho Hao Yun, Ar. Yong Ming Cheong and Ar. Soh Kah Wai were nominated by the floor.

The election of the Chapter Committee was conducted in accordance with the PAM Constitution where no floor nomination is allowed. This AGM was both interesting and exciting as there is only one contest which is for the post of Deputy Chairman. There were two nominations received at the close of nominations at 5.00pm on 16th July 2010. The two nominations were for Ar. Lo Su Yin and Ar. Wong Kon Yu, Victor.

Counting of votes was done by the Election Officer, Ar. Lim Koi Hoe and assisted by the 3 scrutinizers when the AGM commenced at 10.23am. The result was announced by the Election Officer, Ar. Lim Koi Hoe after the tea-break at 11.55am. Ar. Lo Su Yin was elected to the post with 39 votes against Ar. Wong Kon Yu, Victor who only garnered 29 votes.

Ar. Ho Jia Lit was re-elected as the Chapter Chairman, Ar. Dr. Tan Jun Kwang retains the same post as Vice Chairman, Ar. Arnold Kwan and Ar. Jebb Liew were nominated and elected without contest as Hon. Secretary and Hon. Treasurer respectively at the close of nominations at 5.00pm on 16th July 2010.

The 6 Chapter Committee members who were nominated and won un-contested were:-
1.    Ar. Paul Lau Sei Ta
2.    Ar. Rizal Ahmad Banjar
3.    Ar. Fong Kean Chong, Aaron
4.    Ar. Ho Chung Ket, William
5.    Ar. Daniel Koh Chung Hou
6.    Ar. Yong Ming Cheong

The AGM adjourned at 1.20pm followed by lunch.

Reported by Ar. Arnold Kwan

A seminar on Professional Indemnity Insurance for Architects and Engineer was organized by the PAM Sabah Chapter on 24th July 2010 at PAM Mini Auditorium. It started at 9.30 a.m. and end at 12.30 p.m.

The attendance was very encouraging. A total of 41 participant including 31 architects were present. Ar. Lo Su Yin introduced the speaker Mr. David and Ms. Susan Law, the manager from Berjaya Sompo Insurance Berhad, specializing on Professional Indemnity Insurance.

The seminar includes various topics on the reason for having a Professional Indemnity Insurance, and the many cases due to negligence in Malaysia. She explained the process of Professional Indemnity Insurance and the Indemnity of losses in event of negligence.

The many aspects of insurance were elaborated in detail by the presenter. Professional Indemnity Insurance is important on the policies sold to specific profession such as engineer and architects will be able to cover the professional for claims made against them for breach and negligence during the course of their services.

It also offers protection against error or omission committed in the conduct of insured profession in that period.
The feature of the policy is on claim made basis that was reported against the insured during the period of the insurance. It excludes the circumstances known to the insured prior to inception of policy period and also excludes to cover for claims arising from work performed prior to the retroactive date.

Special advice includes the Insurer should maintain at least an annual policy to cover their liabilities for activities undertaken by them to ensure that there is continuity in maintaining the insurance so that there are no gaps in coverage and maintain retroactive date of previous policy.

This policy does not replace any existing insurance products (such as Contractor All Risk Policy, Workmen Compensation) it actually compliments the other existing insurance policies.

The second half of the seminar started after a 15 minute of tea-break, with Mr. David making few words of advice.
The response from the floor was very good indeed and questions are most relevance to the architects technical services and professional scope in mind. Through the process of Professional Insurance was explained, there are still so many related questions from the floor, such as how much Professional Services relating to the LAM, PAM, its risk, cost etc…yet to be clarified.

Perhaps it may be a good idea to have a 2nd Seminar in regards to this topic depends on the response. What do you guys say?

As the seminar ended, PAM Vice Chairman, Chairman for CPD Seminar Committee, Ar. Dr. Tan Jun Kwang on behalf of PAM Sabah Chapter extended our sincere thanks and acknowledging the contribution of the speakers for such wonderful presentation.

Reported by: Dr. Tan Jun Kwang

The Chapter was invited by Sabah Chinese High School to present a Career Guidance talk to approximately 150 Science Stream students from Senior 1, 2, and 3 of the school on 31st July 2010. Immediate past chairman, Ar. Sim Sie Hong made a presentation on Architecture and Architectural Practice highlighted the importance of some of the key subjects such as Physic, Chemistry, Geometry, Algebra, Trigonometry in school which are essential knowledge when practice as an Architect. Ar. Sim also shown the two short films produced by PAM Production namely; “Days Before The Launch” and “Bond 007 vs Charlie’s Angels” to the students. The presentation ended with the Chapter donated three books published by PAM Sabah Chapter – “Architecture in Sabah: Resorts and Hotels” to the school library. The presentation was fruitful with active participation between the students and Ar. Sim during the Questions and Answers session.  Overall the presentation was a success and responds from the students were positive. The Chapter will continued promoting the importance of architecture and planning to the younger generation in other schools of Sabah in the near future.

Reported by Ar. Sim Sie Hong

 

Career Guidance Talk_chinese news

Feedbacks received from career guidance talk

 

The Chapter organized another factory visit on 17th July 2010 Saturday, Tomher Industrial Sdn Bhd located at mile 6½, Tuaran Lama Road Telipok. It was attended by 26 participants including 9 architects.

Upon greeted by welcoming staff, the product talk began with our Vice Chairman, Dr.Tan Jun Kwang introducing the Managing Director Mr. Ethan Tan who presented the talk. The topic for our visit is – GREEN Plastic, you can make the change!

Mr. Ethan Tan encouraged architects to implement sustainable design & material to fulfill the Green Building Index (GBI). He spoke on plastic application as a sustainable material exploiting its advantages further by converting into environmental friendly products & systems.

There are many products being made including HDPE spiral pipe, PE water tanks, PE septic tanks, etc. in the two factories located within walking distances. Tomher Industrial Sdn Bhd introduced another product recently for palm oil estate – HDPE Gravity Conveyor. This being an ideal solution for transporting harvested fresh fruit bunched (FFB) in hilly terrains. This award winning product makes harvesting possible in all weather conditions.

The factory tour began at the HDPE pipe producing section. We were introduced to the raw material that comes from Saudi Arabia in pallet from of polystyrene. Once mix and dyed, it is put to high temperature for melting purposes and later cooled down when going through an automated mechanism process that controlled the sizes of the pipe being produced. This include spiral HDPE pipe (with cement lining) that was so commonly used for sewerage pipe in KK district. Various different sizes and thickness of pipe can be produced and rolled into batches for delivery.

At the entrance to this factory is their signature display of SMARTER rainwater harvesting solution attached to a large 3M tall water tank. The smart system for harvesting contains a gadget with several innovative designs that allows easy usage with effective first flush diverter. It features self cleaning channel, leaf catcher, overflowing channel and a completely detachable lid. The gadget is easy to install and can save up to 50% water consumption.

At another factory within the same vicinity is where the blue coloured water tanks of various capacities are made. Directly fed into metal mould of the desired capacity where the raw material is heated to nearly 200ºC. The mould rotates to give the circular tank an even layer of thickness. After approximately 20 minutes, each mould is cooled by watering to lower the temperature for pulling the contracted tank out of the metal mould by hand. This process is repeated for another water tank.

All products coming out from the two factories are tested to ensure quality assurance to the standard prescribed by SIRIM Malaysia.

Mr. Ethan Tan informed that they also made PE septic tank and has been actively in discussion with local authorities to undertake retrofit works to existing non-functioning sewerage treatment plant. They are able to come-up with solutions to suit the different types of treatment plant design in order to bring about normal functionality.

The factory visit ended by 2pm with a group photograph taken.

Reported by:
Ar. Yong Ming Cheong

The PAM Fellowship Golf 2010 has been held successfully on 23^rd June at the Sabah Golf and Country Club. It was attended by 6 architects and 20 invitees.

Despite the rain which has been pouring practically every afternoon for the past two weeks or so, the weather was fine for the day and buggies were allowed into the course.

The Organising Chairman, Ar. Victor Wong took a new role as the camera man for the event, going round the course with his Canon and 100 to 400 mm telephoto lens, in search of the perfect swing. He was disappointed to find that the majority of the golfers were having swings like that of John Dally! A slide show was later presented before the prize presentation lunch.

The occasion saw the returning to golf of Mr. Philip Chin, who was working in Macau for a few years while another invitee golfer, Ir. Patrick Lau returned to join the fellowship golf after “disappearing” from the scene for quite a few years also!

Ar. Ho Jia Lit, the Chapter Chairman was present at lunch to grace the occasion and he later presented the prizes to all the winners in the invitees section.

The occasion also celebrated the successful election of Mr. Ng Loong Fah as the Captain of the Sabah Golf and Country Club in its AGM recently.  In return, Mr. Ng Loong Fah has kindly sponsored the lunch.

The Bull Eye was won by a lucky sole winner, Ir. Jimmy Liew and the prize money was presented by the Organzing Chairman, Ar. Victor Wong.

Mr. Ng Loong Fah presented the prizes to the winners in the Architect’s Section, Ar. Wong Hon Lin, Ar. David Kwan and Ar. Chin Yin Tet who won the first, second and third positions respectively.

The Chapter Committee was honored to be invited to attend the Nippon Paint Gala Night 2010 on 14^th May 2010 at the Sime Darby Convention Centre, Kuala Lumpur. We joined many others from different parts of Malaysia converging into the convention centre for a special and memorable night hosted by Nippon Paint at the national level.

Led by the Chapter Chairman, the Committee witnessed the launch of the Total Green Solution by Nippon Paint where they introduced the Odour-less Air-Care product to the audience comprising of members from the building fraternity, traders, suppliers, industry partners, etc. The Chief Executive Officer proudly announced that this new product is the result of advance paint technology after intensive research. He believes Nippon Paint has the right product to meet the increasingly challenging global awareness towards green sustainability.

The Odour-less Air-care range of paint product has near Zero VOC (Volatile Organic Compound) as it is able to absorb formaldehyde and refreshes the air. It has anti-bacterial with superior wash ability characteristics. It is scrub resistance and produced an eggshell like finish for interior wall.

Nippon Paint has also pledged to contribute to the environment and capture the essence of Green Building Index by emphasizing on their Total Green Solution approach on paint choices and principals during the launch. Each guest at the Gala Night was given a port of plant to do our own small part to plant more trees to green our environment further.

For and on behalf of Chapter members, we would like to thank to Nippon Paint (Sabah) Sdn Bhd for bringing the Chapter Committee over and share a special launch with us. It has been a delightful night. One of us were joyful to win a 32 inch LCD television set during the lucky draw towards the end of the evening.

We wish Nippon Paint every success in their pursuit of Green ideology for the benefit of the environment and the inhabitants.

Congratulations to Nippon Paint once again.

Write-up by : Ar. Yong Ming Cheong
Picture by   : Ar. Victor Wong

A very good morning again and welcome to our IPDM-PAM “Interior Design Exhibition (id-x) 2010.

First of all, We would like to express our sincere thanks to our Guest of Honour Yang Berhormat Datuk Edward Yong, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing, who has graciously accepted our invitation to this id-x exhibition today. We are indeed honored to have your presence here today Datuk.

Our sincere thanks to Ar. Ronald Tang, our Organizing Chairman for today exhibition and his hard working committee members.

And also thank you to Yang Berusaha En. Mohd. Suhaimi, President of IPDM for coming all the way from Kuala Lumpur to support our local IPDM-PAM (id-x) exhibition today.

Thank you to all our supporters and exhibitors of IPDM and PAM Sabah and not forgetting our kind sponsors and the media too.

Distinguished guests, Datuk-Datuk, Datin-Datin, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Gone are the days when house buyers, corporate offices and retail shops owners are happy with just four walls and a roof over their head.  As Malaysia had progressed over the years, its Citizen are now more educated and well informed on what is available to them in the context of comfort in their built environment.

Today, the younger generations are more demanding for better quality design than their parents or Grandparents and it is timely for us Architects and Interior Designers as well as the specialist contractors to provide our enhanced services to meet this demands.

On another note:-

Everyone today is talking about climate change and going Green.  Yes, we all have a role to play in our daily lives to help reduce wastage of energy.  Interior Design is all about visual and physical comfort, especially inside our built environment eg. A home or office.

We all forgot and we took “Thermal” comfort for granted, we look a visual and physical comfort as a priority as Thermal comfort can be easily provided for by air-conditioning eg. Providing cold air in our hot environment and heating in other cold countries.

Going Green vide Interior Design can easily be achieved without much additional cost when both Architects and Interior Designer starts on a correct footing.

Correct orientation of windows and walls, with proper shading and ventilations can greatly reduce heat gain vide solar radiations in our hot humid environment. A typical roof system of a Malaysian Terrace House receives most of its solar heat gain from its roof.  This typical roof gain about 50% to 85% of the total solar radiation heat into this house.

Reducing solar heat gain through the roof with proper insulations should therefore be the main priority for keeping a house cooler for ‘Thermal Comfort’.  Temperature difference of up to 4 degree Celsius had been achieved between roofs with insulations to those without insulation (Rockwool insulation).

From this, one can see, a roof with proper ventilation and insulation will consume not only lesser electricity but will also be naturally cooler (up to 4 degree Celsius).

However, I would like to bring to the kind attention of our Honorable Asst. Minister Datuk Edward Yong and his Ministry, that unfortunately, insulations is a hidden item inside roof space and not all developers are prepare to provide for this due to additional cost of insulation when it cannot be seen by potential house purchasers.

So, on behalf of all future house buyers in Sabah, I would like to appeal to the Honorable Minister to kindly study and consider on how to make it a requirement for all future housing development, to be provided with a minimal 50mm thick insulation wool with double sided aluminum sisalation sheet to its roof space.

Knowing our Honorable Datuk and his Ministry, who has a long impeccable history of service to the building industries, who I am sure genuinely feels for the common man in the streets, would consider this reasonable appeal for the common good of everyone in Sabah. You will forever be remembered, for being brave enough to consider for the benefit of the future generation.

For that, I thank you once again Datuk for taking time off from your busy schedules to be with us today for our id-x 2010 exhibition.

Thank you.

Ar. Ho Jia Lit
Sabah Chapter Chairman 2009/10

Further to an invitation by Jabatan Bomba to PAM Chapter Committee for a dialogue with them on 2^nd Feb 2010, the Chairman Ar. Ho J L led a team of PAM CC members consisting of Ar. Lo Su Yin, Ar. Arnold Kwan, Ar. Aaaron Fong, Ar. Belinda Chia, and [ past Chairman Ar. Lee Hon Liong] attended this dialogue along with members of IEM and ACEM at BOMBA HQ , Jalan Lintas Inanam at 10 am.

All were warmly welcomed by the BOMBA Director Tuan PPJB Khirudin B. Drahman and his Officers at their main conference room and a power point presentation were given by the Director En Khirudin with regards to the administration of their BOMBA Department. Various statistics with regards to numbers of Deaths, Injuries and Damages to properties in terms of Cost and [ total value of properties saved ], resulting from past years Fire’s were given.

It is interesting to note that during this briefing, BOMBA had pick out Komplex Karamunsing as one of the building of concern with a ” potential disaster ” waiting to happen with regards to fire safety due to so many new on-going renovation works not having full BOMBA endorsement to date for ”OC”. BOMBA inform that they are keeping an eye on this building and hope both the Architects and Engineers involved with the on-gong renovations works to submit their drawings for BOMBA endorsements before OC. The director mention that if there is a fire in Komplex Karamunsing now, chaos will happen as all pedestrians routes have been narrowed due to extension of additional shop lot spaces and even existing FIRE DOORs have been removed for these expansions and he is also not sure if there are any smoke extractors inside the central hall space. [ His off the cuff remarks was that he wont recommend bringing his children to this shopping Komplex]. Ar. Ho also express his concerns and concurred with the directors statements and hope all consultants involved to take note of BOMBA’s concerns.

New policies were also informed; [1], no more sprinklers requirement for 2 1/2- 3 storey housing and [2], doing away with requirement on limitations on maximum numbers of Terrace housing units [before: Max.16 units or 300 feet due to fire break requirement ] in one block.  It is now up to Local Authorities to determine what is allowable with regards to the number of Max. units in block.

Tuan Khirudin also informed that there were 9 types of buildings premises [ subject to certain number of storey’s ”heights” and Sq. Ft, ”areas” ..] will needs yearly approvals by BOMBA. [namely: Libraries, Hospitals and Medical Centers, Hotels, Hostels and Dormitories, and certain Warehouses, Industrial Plants / Chemical Factories, Multi Purposes Halls i.e. UMS Hall, High rise offices i.e. Yayasan Sabah and enclosed shop lots larger than 2001 M Sq.

Questions and answers and many kind words of praise follows after the presentations from both Architects and Engineers. All presents were later invited by the director for a tour of BOMBA’s Forensic Laboratory where millions of Ringgit worth of equipments were stored and where resulting evidence of equipments failures or human carelessness were also on display. We were briefed by the director along the tour on every segment of displays on the various  causes of fire.

We were also informed that Sabah BOMBA department has now engaged 2 full time chemist on hand and their duties include investigations and reporting on possible Arson’s for police further investigations esp. if fire had resulted in deaths and also for insurances claims requirement for damages to properties.

The director and his officers kindly invited all for a beautiful lunch at their dinning hall upstairs after this tour and a group photo was taken there after. We all left with a better knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of the Sabah Bomba department

On behalf of PAM Sabah Chapter, a big thank you to Tuan Khirudin and his officers for their kind invitation and hosting of this dialogue and hope other smaller district Bomba’s offices are as friendly and transparent as their Headquarter at Jalan Lintas.

Reported by:-
Ar. Ho Jia Lit

Ar. Ho and Deputy Chairman, Ar. Wong attended a talk by the guest speaker, Dr. Myron Shekelle, conservation biologist from US held on 1 March 2010 at Le Meridien Hotel, Kota Kinabalu.The topic was ‘’Climate Change’’ and its impact on Asia. The chosen animal ‘’Slow Loris’’[Tarsier] a tiny nocturnal animal with big round eyes was the subject  studied for over 13 years in Sulawesi [Indonesia] and how climate change will affect the decline of these animals. This talk was sponsored by the US Embassy KL.