3. inside
The Principal 's Story
The Project
Diamond Building
The Mentari Court
Reflection
1
2
3
5
7
Issue 001. 2015
4. Theprincipal'Sstory
Name: Ir. Chow Soong Ming
Age: 55
Qualification:
-- Bachelor of Engineering, University Of Malaya - 1985 B.E.
--(Hons)(UM)
Master Of Business Administration, University Of Malaya -
1993 -- MBA(UM)
Professional Membership:
-- Professional Engineer with The Board of Engineers,
Malaysia -- P.Eng.(M)
-Member of the Institution of Engineers, Malaysia - 1989 --
M.I.E.M
The Journey
After graduating from University of Malaya in 1985, Ir. Chow
started working at Pakatan Runding Yusoff Sdn.Bhd., a Civil
and Structural Design Company. His first role in the company
was assisting in the design of petrol stations, industrial
buildings, and shopping complexes. Then in 1986, he became
the Assistant Resident Engineer supervising the construction
of RM 17 million Johor Bahru New Water Supply Scheme,
Phase 1B at Layang-Layang near Masai Town, Negeri Johor.
Later on, he was promoted as the design engineer in charge
for a few high rise condominiums at Genting View and TTDI.
He worked in that company for 5 years.
The next company that Ir. Chow worked for was Genting View
Resort Development Sdn.Bhd. (Malaysia), a housing
development company. He worked in this company from
April 1990 until July 1997. He worked as the resident
engineer and supervised the construction of condominiums,
apartments and shophouses in the Genting View Resort site
at Genting Highlands for the first 3 years. Then in March
1994, he was promoted as the project manager for the
construction of the phase 4 high-rise condominiums and
clubhouses. During the period with Genting View Resort
Development Sdn. Bhd., Ir. Chow was involved actively
in the planning, coordination, getting approvals and
launching of the phase 4 development project. He was
also involved in the planning of the 350- acre Kajang
Heights golf- course and mixed housing development
project.
The third employer was L?Grande Development Sdn.Bhd.
a wholly owned subsidiary of Grand Hoover
Bhd.(Malaysia). He worked as the General Manager and
was overseeing the construction of 12 projects which
involved residential houses and 4- storey shop houses.
He worked in this company for a year, from august 1997
to august 1998.
The next company he was attached to was Yee Hong Pte.
Ltd. in Singapore where he worked as a project manager
for the design development and construction of a pri-
mary school with mainly precast structures and the
S$30million Design and Construction of the Multi? user
Industrial Development at Bukit Batok Street 23 where
post tensioned beams and slabs were involved. These
two projects stretched from September 1998 to October
2000.
With 15 years of experience, Ir. Chow decided to set up
his own company. So, in November 2000, Perunding SM
Cekap was established. This is a civil and structural engi-
neering management consultant firm. The present office
is located at no. 8A, Jalan SS26/6, 47301, Petaling Jaya,
Selangor. When the company first started its business, it
has a paid-up capital of RM 50,000. The company started
off working on small design and management projects.
He ran the company by using all the knowledge that he
gained from previous working experiences in other com-
panies.
1
5. 1.The RM52 million shop apartments for Expand Factor
Sdn.Bhd. at Saujana Puchong, Selangor.
2.The RM6.5 million 280 units of Low Cost apartment for
Maxisegar Sdn.Bhd.at Bukit Beruntung, Selangor.
3.The RM4 million car park and food stalls for Expand
Factor Sdn.Bhd. at Saujana Puchong, Selangor.
4.The proposed construction & completion of 22 blocks
consisting of 255 units of double storey terrace houses at
Lestari Puchong, Petaling District for Lestari Puchong Sdn
Bhd.
Since then, the company grew, progressed and developed
from a small company to what it is today. Its reputation
grew and began to receive bigger scale projects. These
projects range from medium cost apartments to
government headquarters. Some examples of the projects
are:
1.The proposed construction & completion of 4 blocks of
1892 units of 18 storey low medium cost apartments
costing RM 66 million at PJS 8/9, Petaling Jaya, Selangor
for Mentari Properties Sdn. Bhd.
2.The proposed construction & completion of 22 blocks
consisting of 255 units of double storey terrace houses at
Lestari Puchong, Petaling District for Lestari Puchong Sdn
Bhd.
3.The upgrading of Jalan Tun Abdul Razak Susur 5 from
the Balai Bomba to Junction of Jalan Sentosa for AKG
Builders Sdn.Bhd. at Metro Larkin, Johor Bahru.
4.The proposed construction of 380 units of medium cost
apartments costing RM 15 million at Section U5, Bandar
Shah Alam for Merge Housing Berhad.
5.The proposed construction & completion of 418 units of
20-storey High Cost Condominiums and Facilities costing
RM 68 million at Section 1, Kota Damansara, Daerah
Petaling, Selangor For Damansara Impian Sdn.Bhd.
6.The proposed construction of 1377 units of 12 blocks of
government quarters costing RM 210 million at Putrajaya
Precint 18 for Putrajaya Holdings Sdn. Bhd.
7.The proposed construction of 8-storey Suruhanjaya
Tenaga Head Quarter costing RM 65 million at Putrajaya
Precint 2 for Suruhanjaya Tenaga.- Achieve Platinum
Award
The biggest project that his company had handled so far
was the UiTM Tapah project. He was involved in the
construction and completion of the UiTM Tapah campus in
Perak. The project cost about RM 280 million. It consists of
40 blocks of buildings, which spans over 100 acres of
land. He was involved in the design and civil and
structural aspects of this project. It took approximately 2
years to complete this project.
theprojects...
2
6. Roles & Responsibility
3
Problem Encountered
Ir. Chow played the role of a design civil and
structural engineer in this project. He was involved
from the conceptual stage until the completion of
the building. Even though he is an engineer, he
had to attend the numerous meetings to discuss
the concept and design of this energy saving
building. He had to constantly go for site visits
with fellow architects to visit existing energy
saving buildings. A lot of research has to be done
and numerous discussions lasted up to 2 years
before the concept design was being finalized.
Once the conceptual design was accepted by the
client, Ir. Chow would have to start on the civil and
structural design of the building. As a civil and
structural design engineer, he had to carry out the
following :
1} The design of the road and drainage system
using spreadsheet program
2} The design of the sewerage system using
spreadsheet program
3} The design of the water reticulation system
using ESPANET program
4} The design of the building structure using
ETABSand ESTEEM structural program
The output of the design analysis were then be
drafted out as the civil and structural layouts
together with the various details of the building.
This stage took up 6 to 7 months. Next, during the
tender stage, Ir. Chow prepared the tender
drawings which were to be used for the
contractors to prepare their tender sum. Ir. Chow
would also be involved during the tender
evaluation and interview stage to clarify any civil
and structural queries. After the project had been
awarded to a selected contractor, Ir. Chow would
One of the major problems he encountered during
the design stage was that the building height was
controlled by the authorities and the architect
needed a high headroom resulting leaving behind a
small depth for the engineer to design the beams
to support the whole building. After going through
a few rounds of discussion with the architect, it was
compromised that the beam depth allowed was
only 500mm. He had to resort to the expensive
design method of using posttensioned beam design
to cater for the low beam depth.
Dome Detail Drawing
Section Drawing
4
7. During the interview he highlighted two projects in
which one of them was his civil and structural
design project while the other one he was involved
in the project management of the project.
The Diamond Building
1.The proposed construction and completion of the
Energy Commission Headquarters Diamond Building
(Suruhanjaya Tenaga) of 8 floors and 2 basements at
Lot No PT7556 (Plot 2C15) Precint 2, Bandar
Putrajaya, Daerah Putrajaya, Wilayah Persekutuan.
---- A Civil and Structural Design Project
The diamond building is a semi-government project
located in Putrajaya. The project was started on 1st
of November 2005 and completed on 31st March
2010. It is an eight-story building with two
basements and was designed to be an energy
efficient building. It is designed to use mostly
natural light to light up the interiors and it only
consumes about one third of the energy used by a
conventional building. At the building rooftop it is
installed with photovoltaic (PV) solar panels which
generates 10% of the building?s energy. Ir. Chow
explained that the wall of the building are designed
to slope at an angle of 65° so that the sunlight
would not strike the walls directly but only gliding
along them. This will reduce the direct sunlight heat
onto the building and thus reduce the cost of
cooling the building. The building is named as a
diamond building for its unique shape. The inverted
pyramid shape also enables more space for solar
panels and rainwater harvesting tanks. There is a
dome located on the top of the building which is
designed to regulate and admit daylighting. It uses
an automatic roller blind system that is sensitive to
the intensity and angle of incident sunlight. The
building also has a water harvesting system that
save about 70% to 80% of water usage.
The construction building was extensive, among
those involved were architects, engineers, quantity
surveyors and landscape architects. This building
was designed by the NR Architect of Kuala Lumpur,
with Thai architect Dr. Soontorn Boonyatikam
serving as principal for the project.,the Civil and
Structural engineer is Perunding SM Cekap, the
Mechanical and Electrical engineer is Prime tech
Engineers Sdn. Bhd., the Landscape architect is KRB
Enviro Design Sdn. Bhd., and the Quantity Surveyor
is ARH Jurukur Bahan Sdn. Bhd. The main contractor
for the project was Putra Perdana Construction Sdn.
Bhd.
behindthescene
Diamond Building Day View
Photo Building Under Construction
5
Diamond building Night View
8. behindthescene
Mentari Court
This was a low-medium cost apartment project
located at PJS 8/9 next to the Leisure Commerce
Square. The construction of the project was started
on 1st of March 2004 and completed on 31st August
2005.. It is situated along major bus routes to Kuala
Lumpur and it is easily accessible via the Federal
Highway, LDP, Kesas and New Pantai Expressway.
The size of these low medium cost apartments are
about 800 square feet and each unit consists of 3
bedrooms and two bathrooms The occupants are
mostly students because there are a few Universities
around this area like the Taylor?s University Lakeside
Campus, Sunway University, and etc. This building
was designed by the Arkitek Supra Sdn. Bhd.., the
Civil and Structural engineer is Mohd. Asbi &
Associates, the Mechanical and Electrical engineer is
Perunding Mulia Sdn. Bhd., the Landscape architect is
KRB Enviro Design Sdn. Bhd., and the Quantity
Surveyor is Yong And Mohamad Faiz Sdn. Bhd. The
main contractor for the project was PWC Corporation
Sdn. Bhd.
9. Roles & Responsibility
Problem Encountered
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES Ir. Chow played the role
of a project manager in this project. Originally, this
project was designed by Padureka Sdn. Bhd..
However, during the tender stage, the client wanted a
cheaper design with more constructability, so Ir.
Chow?s company was hired to take over the project
design instead through a design and built contractor
ie PWC Corporation Sdn. Bhd. A new design was
proposed and it was then submitted to the client for
approval. Ir. Chow proposed to use steel formwork
and in this case it was the tunnel formwork system as
it would have less debris and very easy to handle. The
apartment were redesigned to use shear wall instead
of the conventional columns and beams. This shear
wall system creates an efficient load-bearing
structure. It is particularly effective in projects suited
to repetitive cellular construction such as residential
blocks, hotels, student accommodation, barracks and
prisons
As a project manager, he coordinated all the works
that need to be carried out throughout the whole
project to ensure the construction work would go
smoothly. He prepared the works programme which
showed the starting date and completion date of
each work activity to arrive at the final completion
date. Ir. Chow had to plan the locations of the
machineries to be set up especially the tower cranes,
materials hoists, loading platforms and etc. The
construction of the buildings involved a lot of parties
and need a lot of coordination work. Each
construction project would have a contract period
which is the time frame given to complete the
project and the work progress must be monitored
Ir. Chow would have to coordinate the fabrication of the
steel tunnel form work so that the dimensions and
bracings were in order. The mock up unit of the steel
formwork would be installed to ensure that the
dimensions, drops, openings, conduits and etc. are in order
before the first unit would be cast. Ir. Chow would have to
ensure that the concrete ordered would be the early
strength type so that the tunnel form work could be
dismantled the next day after concreting. Before
dismantling the formwork, concrete test cubes would have
to be tested to ensure that the concrete had achieved the
strength required before dismantling of the formwork
would be allowed. The dismantled formwork would then
be installed at the next set of units with the tower cranes.
Site meetings were being held fortnightly and Ir. Chow had
to prepare the site progress report to show the progress of
each work activity, manpower at site, machineries in
operation, site queries, work progress photos and etc. He
also had to go through the all the construction drawings
{architectural, structural, M&E} to check for discrepancies
and make sure that the discrepancies were highlighted and
resolved. Being a project manager is more tedious and had
much more work to do. Projects of this scale would involve
about 30-40 subcontractors and suppliers. Ir. Chow
coordinated this project with the help of 3 site supervisors.
closely so that construction work would be able to
progress smoothly. The contract period of this project was
18 months.
One of the major problems he encountered during the
construction stage was the hairline cracks on the
apartment floor slabs after construction. After a few trial,
the problem was solved by using canvas to cover the wet
concrete slab immediately after casting to prevent loss of
water and exposure to direct sunlight. Other frequent
problems were the concrete cannot achieve the required
strength and the steel form work could not be dismantled
for casting other units the next day. The concrete supplier
was summoned and warned to carry out the concrete
mixing carefully and put in the dosage of the additives
correctly.
Another problem faced by Ir. Chow was during the
post-tensioning process. He called it the ?Remedial work?.
Sometimes, in post-tensioning concrete the tendons
within the ducts get stuck. So the contractor and the
supplier were required to do the remedial work.
Construction of Mentari Court
6
10. advice
reflection
What was your inspiration to become an
engineer?
According to Ir. Chow, 'Basically, when we
were young, we have our own ambitions.
What type of profession can one make
choose to work towards to?' In fact he had
two choices, one was to go into the
accounting field and the other was the
engineering field. At the end, he had chosen
to become a civil engineer because the
construction industry then was very good
about 34 years ago. At that time, before an
engineering student would have graduated,
he/she would already be employed by
engineering companies. Around that time,
there was a boom in construction and there
were plenty of job opportunities.
Once you become an engineer, one has to be
dedicated and do not regret on what have
been done. Put in effort in every work you do,
you?ll get the achievement and you?ll feel the
satisfaction that you have completed a
project. One also has to explore ways to solve
the problems one faces. Be positive and do
not give up whenever there are challenges.
11. Head Coordinator
Clara Lee Pei Lin
Editor in chief
Chow May Teng
Editorial
Chin Man Choong
Chia Yuh Fei
Head of photography
Eric Lo Yann Shin
Head of videography
Kok Pui Kei
Chin Man Choong
8
CREDITs
