UTM Architecture Students Soaring with 4 Awards in MAKARA: 33rd Architectural Student Workshop at University Of Technology Sarawak (UTS) Year 2022

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The Architectural Student Workshop is a three-decade-old annual national event. The University of Technology Sarawak (UTS) hosted the Makara: 33rd Architectural Student Workshop this year. The programme ran from August 21, 2022, to August 26, 2022. The event aims to foster leadership by challenging advocates of architectural design among undergraduate architecture students. It has become a creative arena through the exposure of talent from Malaysia and abroad via a shared platform for active networking among participants, practitioners, and the public through various creative academic activities.

Architecture students from Malaysian universities that offer architecture courses have been invited and highly encouraged to participate in this annual event. The Architectural Association of University Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Architech, has sent a team of architecture students to participate in the competitions at this event. Gateway Installation, Videography Competition, Drone Photography, Mini Photography, Performance, Fashion, and Design Competition are just some of the competitions held during the Makara workshop. These competitions are judged based on the participant’s creativity, with each competition having its own set of evaluation criteria and respective monetary prizes.

Performance Competition
Position: 1st Place Award
Prize: RM700.00 (Inclusive of Trophy + Certificate)

The Skudaipura performance team consisting of 25 participants, has won the first place award for a dance competition with their fabulous performance titled “The Golden Key of Arcadia”. In the artistic and inspiring performance led by Lim Xiao Ting, Valerie incorporates the fusion of lights and shadow to intricately portray the harmonious lifestyle and training for the future war of Arcadians. In collaboration with Unit Kebudayaan UTM, the outstanding performance was choreographed by Encik Mohamad Eqbal in competing with other universities. The winning performance is a combined effort by an assembled unit of students consisting of the technical and lighting team, costume and makeup team, and performers.

Watch the performance video here:

Gateway Installation Competition
Position: 2nd Place Award
Prize: RM400.00 (Inclusive of Trophy + Certificate)

The gateway installation competition is a team competition involving 25 participants. The design of a gateway installation defines the identity of our clan (Arcadia) with the overarching idea of expressing a transitional configuration through a shift in materials and proportion, demonstrating the contrast of two separate aspects. The construction also needs to be composed of sustainable materials, provide nighttime lighting without using dangerous chemicals, inflammable materials or fire itself, and not exceed the dimension of 2 m x 2 m x 2.5 m. The gateway design has won second place, and it will be exhibited in situ for 4 weeks after the end of the Makara workshop.

Gateway Walkthrough video:

Gateway Presentation Video: https://youtu.be/n3klPsQgVgg

Gateway Construction Process: https://youtu.be/u-FLjJ74Dq0

Videography competition
Position: 3rd Place Award
Prize: RM300.00 (Inclusive of Trophy + Certificate)

The theme of the videography competition is origin. It aims to give an experience in creating a creative film with the following theme subject to the participant who is involved in the competition. The content of this short film is about the rise of Arcadia. Arcadia was formerly known as Skudaipura. Due to some reason, the people decided to disappear from the world. After several eras, with the help of the Spiritual Warriors, the people were brought to the new world, Arcadia. The videography competition is led by Tan Ying Wei and Yong Yi Jie. In this competition, they won the prize of third place. According to Tan Ying Wei, “a special thanks to everyone for supporting the filming and helping throughout the competition.” Simultaneously, the film’s storyline resulted from many meetings between the whole team.

Origin videography:

Drone competition
Position: 3rd Place Award - Tan Ying Wei 
Prize: RM150.00 (Inclusive of Trophy + Certificate)

This is an individual competition with the theme of ORIGIN (Asal Usul). The theme basically welcomes the photographers or participants to share an elevating and inspiring creative expression which represents the origin of our clan (Arcadia). A total of four entries attached with a brief write-up were submitted. Each submission produced by different participants has gone through four different places to capture the scenery they think most fits the theme. Participants have broadened their imaginations to create a visually interesting architectural composition in photography. One of the entries with the submission theme of UTOPIAN CITY was produced by Tan Ying Wei, who won the third-place award. The photographic work narrates the concepts of the time of Skudaipura in a modern way, where human ideology and nature coexist peacefully while expressing the desire for a utopian city today.

Position: Consolation - Yong Yi Jie  
Prize: Certificate

On the other hand, the drone photographic work prepared by YONG YI JIE with the submission theme of SO NEAR, YET SO FAR, has won the consolation award. The narration of the photographic works tells about the joy and excitement of Johorean longing to enter the opposite city, which is separated by a thin ribbon of sea, Singapore. The photographic works have captured the skyline of the city at night with people that travel under the neon. The drone photography competition has allowed the participants to explore beyond the different angles or points of view when capturing pictures, yet expresses and presents architecture from an unusual perspective.

Conclusion

The Makara: 33rd Architectural Student Workshop is a social medium for students, particularly those enrolled in the Architecture Course, as it allows students to learn how to run a programme from the planning stage to implementation while also practising the matter by running the programme. Not only that, the objective of the programmes can foster a cooperative spirit among participants. Participants can form groups and work together to win every match. They also collaborated to come up with creative ideas for a concept that has carried the Skudaipura delegation to this day.

Furthermore, the knowledge gained during this architectural student workshop can be translated into something that benefits the program, which is being run to foster a globalization mindset among competing universities. Participants from other universities can interact and exchange ideas in each activity module. Besides, participants from each delegation can also express their opinions, as the programme requires positive engagement.

Finally, the annual programme provides a lot of input and exposes the skillset of an architect while also allowing future architects to exert talent that they already possess and serve as a platform for them to express their creativity.