Van-Guarding the Future: Local university team Vanguard triumphs in Salon COE Competition

Kuala Lumpur, 26th March 2019:

Team Vanguard Designs, comprising graduate and post-graduate students from First City University College, today won US$10,000 with their interior architecture design for the Salon Centre for Media Excellence Interior Architecture Competition.

The Salon competition kicked off in September 2018. During the competition, the teams were challenged with developing the interior architecture for the upcoming Salon Centre for Media Excellence, developed by Salon Films (H.K) Ltd located in Jalan Gurney, Kuala Lumpur, according to a stringent list of criteria for facilities and amenities and also dealing with the limitations of the building, such as the limited floor space and the restriction on underground development.

Team Vanguard’s proposal impressed the judges with their capacity to overcome the limitations of the building, through their proposal of a free-flow interconnected space that breaks the barriers of structure whilst maintaining the thematic narrative.

Six architectural and interior design teams from three Malaysian universities were given the opportunity to participate in this avant-garde project that could literally transform the local content business scene. The six teams were from First City University College, KDU Penang and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Mr Wang Cheung Yue, Chairman of Salon Films, presented the mock cheque to the winning team at the Salon Centre for Media Excellence Interior Architecture Competition Prize Giving Ceremony, at Hotel Shangri-La on March 26, at 3.00 PM. “We wanted to give a chance for the youth of Malaysia to show what they’re capable of achieving,” said Mr Wang during his opening remarks. “Let them come up with ideas for the interior, as a demonstration of their fresh, original, vibrant thoughts.”

"This is not only about competing in a prize-winning contest. It goes well beyond the normal for the students who put such efforts for the past six months to excel at a higher level to produce the awesome designs we saw from the teams. It is the Malaysian youth who has designed the future home for the Salon Centre," said Mr Wang.

Describing his team’s winning concept, Preston Tew, Director of Vanguard, stated that “We studied Salon as a company, and found out the three stages of Salon Films: their ambitions, their transformation of the business, and their desire to become more globalised. So, we incorporated these three stages into the building programme.

The spaces from curvy forms transformed into angular forms – these represent their ambitions. Then, the transformation of the business represented by strong shapes. The office section of the building represents their ambition to globalise. Our sections are separate but can be joined to work together. This concept was applied throughout the whole building.”

Team Vanguard comprises Preston Tew, Director; Marcus Chang, Project Manager; Alexis Phang, Marketing; Soh Zu Xin, Designer; Sherlyn Loo, Designer; and Sing Luan, Human Resources.

Salon Films, established in 1959, is a Hong Kong-based professional filmmaking servicing company and a creative video agency and is recognized as a prominent film production company in Asia.

The Salon Centre of Excellence for New Media, a building located in Kuala Lumpur, will be used to promote new media and to provide a space for the development of the film industry in Malaysia.

The Salon Centre, once complete, will be the strategic centre for the new Asian digital media and content business, a regional initiative that will draw on the participation of many Asian countries through the Asia Content Business Summit, established with the objective of raising and developing the Creative Multimedia Content Industries in Asia, and to bring people from related public and private sectors from Asian countries and regions together.

The Salon Centre will be the first in a series of such buildings across the Asian region.

The competition is also part of capacity building efforts using the concept of Junior Enterprises in Malaysian universities. The winning team in this competition will be able to start their own Junior Enterprise, providing students with real-world working and business experience to better prepare them for the working world.

The first Malaysian Junior Enterprise modelled along the lines of the European Confederation of Junior Enterprises (JADE) concept was created by a group of post-graduate students from University Teknologi MARA.