Alice Smith School (Jalan Bellamy)

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BACKGROUND: The Alice Smith School is a two-level building designed as a gateway to the School. It is a collaboration between MvS Architects (Paul Minifie and Jan van Schaik) and iPartnership.LCW in Malaysia. PAM (Malaysian Institute of Architects) awarded the project the GOLD award in the Collaboration category in 2015. CONTRIBUTION: Firstly, the project developed the hybridisation of the British style school cafeteria with Malaysian style street-dining model. Secondly, it demonstrated the application of large scale commercial facade construction techniques on small scale projects within the context of the Malaysian construction industry. Thirdly, the project contributes new thinking around collaborative design models - in this case between architects based geographically and culturally in Kuala Lumpur and architects based geographically and culturally in Melbourne - by using a design process to bridge differences between the two. SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to the Gold Award, the project was also voted in the broader category of the best Malaysian Architecture of 2015. The annual PAM Awards is the premier award for architecture in Malaysia where it 'recognises the contribution made by architects in terms of design quality and that of the built environment.' The project was critically reviewed in Architecture and Culture Magazine (Korea), Africa Design Magazine, the professional journal Architecture Australia, ArchDaily and the Australian Institute of Architects 'International' website. In 2019, the project was published in the book 'Recent Malaysian Architecture' (ISBN 97896752642328), by PAM.