PAMSC to present The Merdeka Interviews today

KUCHING: Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia Sarawak Chapter ( PAMSC) will hold a presentation on The Merdeka Interviews, a major publication on the architecture of independence in Malaysia written by Dr Lai Chee Kien and Ar Ang Chee Cheong at PAMSC Centre from 1pm today.

The presentation is open to the public and admission is free.

The Merdeka Interviews is published by Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (PAM) as part of the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival in 2018. It was first launched in April last year, and almost 900 copies have been sold through distributors and bookstores.

Architectural historian Lai Chee Kien had conducted between 2001 and 2006 a series of interviews with key architects, engineers and artists who contributed to the landscape of Kuala Lumpur and its outskirts at the time of Independence. The ten projects - Merdeka Stadium, Merdeka Park, University of Malaya, Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, Stadium Negara, Muzium Negara, Parliament House, Masjid Negara, Tugu Negara and Subang Airport – have endowed the capital city with key structures for a functioning nation, and created fervour towards the sense of citizenship in Malaysia.

In collaboration with Ang Chee Cheong, The Merdeka Interviews brings together for the first time in a single volume, 17 interviews which reveal not only the protagonists’ roles and work in shaping these architectural icons, but also the milieus, circumstances and larger historical contexts during which they practised. The publication of these interviews is relevant and timely, as we look back in time to discover the courage and spirit that forged a nation of peoples from multiple origins in the first decade of Independence, and their endowments on the landscape of Kuala Lumpur today. As a group of voices, it tells not only the history of the nation’s architecture and buildings at its birth, but altogether the story of Malaysia.

Lai Chee Kien is Adjunct Associate Professor at the Architecture and Sustainable Design Pi l lar at Singapore University of Technology and Design. He is a registered architect and graduated from NUS with a M Arch. by research (1996), and a PhD in History of Architecture and Urban Design from the University of California, Berkeley (2005). He researches on histories of art, architecture, settlements, urbanism and landscapes in Southeast Asia. His publications include Bui lding Merdeka: Independence Architecture in Kuala Lumpur, 1957-1966 ( 2007) and Recollections of Life in an Accidental Nation: Alfred Wong (2016). His 2015 work, Through the Lens of Lee Kip Lin: Photographs of Singapore 1965-1995, was awarded the Singapore Book Award for Best Non- Fiction Title in 2016. The co- authored work Building Memories: People, Architecture, Independence; won Book of the Year 2017 in the same series.

Ang Che e Cheong i s an independent architect, writer and curator based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He maintains an interest in art, culture, media and technology, and in projects that intersect new domains and ideas. His architectural projects range from the residential scale to high rise mixed developments. He was director of the Kuala Lumpur Architecture Festival ( 2011, 2017, 2018) and oversaw the expansion of the programme into a public event. Currently, he edits the Architecture Malaysia (AM) magazine and organises a monthly free public design lecture series.

The presentation will be held at the PAMSC Centre at Lot 7915, 2nd Floor, Queen’s Court at Jalan Wan Alwi. For further details, email to info@ pamsc.org.my or call 082- 457182.