University of Westminster students visit the MRT rail interchange (above) and the TRX site (below)
The CIOB in Malaysia and Lendlease hosted a visit for construction students from the University of Westminster.
Final year undergraduates recently visited Kuala Lumpur (KL), where they attended live projects and organisation offices with industry partners including Lendlease, Savills and the CIOB.
Students visited Tun Razak Exchange (TRX), an integrated 28ha development that will be KL’s new Central Business District and Malaysia’s International Financial District.
A joint venture between Australian developer Lendlease and the Malaysian government, TRX is the single largest mixed-use development site underway in South-East Asia.
Students were able to ask the senior project team questions on subjects such as the digital agenda and challenges such as decarbonisation, social inclusiveness and modern slavery.
They explored the procurement, delivery and operation of private and public sector built assets from a South-East Asian perspective and compared this with the approach in the UK.
The CIOB, which is the accrediting body for many of university’s courses, engaged in an open discussion around the subject of the Malaysian and UK construction industries and hosted a visit to an interchange station, the Chan Sow Lin station, under construction as part of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) project.
CIOB hosts included Ho Chee Leong, president of Malaysian CIOB, Wong Khin Yip, vice-president CIOB administration, and Audrey Chen, the CIOB regional administrator for Malaysia. In addition the students and staff were taken for dinner by industry veteran Datuk Seri Michael Yam, an alumnus of the University of Westminster.
The Lendlease team were headed by Stuart Mendel, managing director of Lendlease Malaysia, who with his senior project team and Ezreen Malek, the Lendlease Malaysia Academy manager, gave the students two days’ immersion into the design, planning, construction and operation of the TRX project.
University of Westminster academic staff who ran the visit were Sean Flynn, Ian Cannings, Wala Al-Daraji and Onur Demirci.
