Couple win MRT station bench design competition

Winning design: The Infinity bench created by Jaihar and Noor Syahidah.

KUALA LUMPUR: A husband-and-wife team from Johor has clinched the grand prize of an open competition to design the seats for the eight underground stations of the upcoming MRT Putrajaya Line.

Their design, called Infinity, was submitted by Jaihar Jailani Ismail, a freelance industrial designer, and his academician wife, Noor Syahidah Abdullah, for the contest organised to create transit furniture that complemented the architecture of the Putrajaya Line stations.

The contest was organised by Mass Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp), project owner of the MRT Line, with the Malaysia Design Council (MDC), with support from the Malaysian Association of Industrial Designers (Pereka).

Running from June 1 until July 30,2020, the Putrajaya Line Bench Design Competition – Transeat, for short – saw submissions of up to 569 designs from 352 participants ranging from professionals, students and members of the public.

Jaihar and Noor Syahidah.

The couple, who took home RM10,000, expressed their gratitude to MRT Corp, MRM and Pereka.

“The Infinity bench is an inclusive social bench that promotes design, art and culture, ” said Jaihar.

The design took into account the many functional aspects needed for a bench within a MRT station.

The first runner up was Muhmmad Nazli Karamazaman, whose design incorporating traditional craft motif won him RM7,000.

Ng Wai How and Yap Qiang Mei, who formed the team WHDY, took the second runner-up position with their “X-Seat” bench. Based on the theme “Vibrancy”, their design won them RM5,000.

For the best submission in the student category, Kamarul Azizi Kamarul Azhan from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia took home RM5,000 for his Koreusi, based on the theme “Moulding Forms”.

The winners were recognised in a simple ceremony held at MRT Corp headquarters recently, with the prizes handed out by MRT Corp CEO Datuk Mohd Zarif Hashim, accompanied by Putrajaya Line project director Datuk Amiruddin Ma’aris, MDC director Sulaiman Arshad and Pereka vice-president Zafri Zakaria Merican.