BFC 43003 – Design Project

Title of the design project: Innovative Community-Disaster Convertible Centre (iC-Dcc)

The design project is parallel to the needs on the Open Ideas Competition for Students (OIC-
2014) held by MSSA

Information on Malaysian disaster scenario

 The main forms of disaster: flood, haze, storm, landslide and epidemic.
 Three entities involved in disaster operation:
o Prevention, Training and Education (to prepare before a disaster)
o Transitory Accommodation for Disaster Victims (to provide during a disaster)
o Operation and Distribution (to organise during a disaster).
 Victims are usually accommodated in borrowed relief centres ; schools and multi-purpose
halls.
 MKN and Pertahanan Awam (Civil Defence) transfer victims from disaster areas to relief
centres; the Ministry of Health (MoH) renders emergency medical treatment, Jabatan
Kebajikan Masyarakat (JKM) provides food and daily needs, while voluntary bodies like
Yayasan Sukarelawan Siswa (YSS) lends a hand in making life bearable for the disaster
victims.
 However it is often that the relief centres are ill-equipped to deal with the two entities of
disaster: Providing ‘Transitory Accommodation for Disaster Victims’ in which hygiene and
cleanliness are main issues to contend with, and dealing with ‘Operation and Distribution’.

Design requirements

 Steel as the main structural and finishing material.

 Building design should have meaningful realization of both architectural fascination and
structural manifestation.
 The realization of a building project depends on the work of the project team and not the
work of an individual.

Design concept

 The building is to provide a community centre for the residents of a village/suburb/town.

 On regular days it functions like any other community centre, but once a disaster strikes the
building ceases to be a community centre and immediately becomes a disaster relief
facility: it shall now serve as both ‘Transitory Accommodation for Disaster Victims’ as well as
an ‘Operation and Distribution’ base.
 The accommodation to be provided ;
1. Community Centre
 comprise a large and column-free multi-purpose hall (sports, weddings, talks can be
held)
 It shall also provide community services ( health, entrepreneurship, advisory, legal )
 Be sure to include storage space for the necessities of the forthcoming disaster
centre.
**Each team need to ensure there shall be enough spaces that can be converted to
accommodate the various functions when the need arises during a disaster. For
reference of a working and successful Community Centre: Bromly by Bow at BBC.org.uk
 2. Transitory Accommodation for Disaster Victims
 The building must be able to provide temporary living accommodation for 500
families or 2,500 disaster victims.
 The large and column-free space of the multi-purpose hall of the Community Centre
must display competency in being convertible into a disaster relief centre in a matter
of 1 hour.
 Medical facilities include examination room, treatment room, beds, accident-
andemergency delivery, ambulance parking.
 Prayer rooms and ablution.
 Bathrooms and toilets.

3. Disaster Operation and Distribution Centre

The building shall be provided with:
 An area for volunteers to sort out all victims’ provisions, which are usually items of
clothing as well as food and beverage.
 A large kitchen with proper preparation and cooking areas, storage, delivery and
waste disposal.
 A delivery yard to cater for 40-footer containers.
 A Helipad.
 Accommodation for 50 pax, for volunteers and all personnel involved in the rescue
and relief operations.

General requirements

 ‘Transitory Accommodation for Disaster Victims’ must be separate from ‘Disaster Operation
and Distribution Centre’ but can be close together for seamless operations.
 Besides the large multi-purpose hall, the other slighter spaces of the Community Centre may
be converted for disaster operations.
 New spaces may also be created in between the Community Centre buildings to achieve
this end.
 All the buildings must satisfy or meet the requirements of administrative, services and logistics
facilities.

The challenge

The challenge is to plan and design the community centre that is convertible into a disaster relief
centre. The design proposal should:
 Creatively lay out the overall master plan of the community facilities,
 Display competency in being convertible into a disaster relief centre,
 Utilise steel as the main structural and finishing material in an innovative way,
 Employ creative use of Industrialized Building System (IBS),
 Incorporate green building strategies (GBI),and
 Cater for people with disability/special needs.
 Each team needs to identify its own site (not more than 5 acres) within Malaysia. Choose
a site that can benefit from the existing surrounding facilities. The site itself should not be
disaster prone. (if applicable)