Designer / Agency
VERITAS Architects Sdn Bhd
Categpory
Urban Planning / Master plan
Award
Share this project :
Women Aid Organisation Shelter Home
Project Présentation
WAO Shelter Home: Adapt and Reuse Category
The WAO Shelter Home is a Corporate Social Responsibility project initiated by a group of developers, consultants and suppliers to help rebuild a new shelter home for the Women Aid Organisation after a fire ordeal by lighting in 2016.
The Site is located within a residential lot, surrounded by a friendly neighbourhood near Taman Paramount. The Women Aid Organisation fights against domestic violence towards children and promotes gender equality in Malaysia. The existing house was a safe home for rescued children under eighteen, who have fallen victim to domestic violence.
With the increase number of victims every year, the design brief calls to rebuild the house with extended spaces to accommodate approximately 15 to 20 children with 3 caretakers. The design idea is to keep portions of the old structure for the administration zone and create two storey annexes for the residential zone. In between, the administration and residential zones share a green courtyard serving as a communal space.
With the limited budget (approximately RM180 per square feet), the new shelter home reused various recyclable materials such as the rejected porcelain tiles and sample marble tiles from the developers, the excess sanitary ware and fittings from the suppliers and the burnt roof tiles from the fire damaged house were repurposed and up-cycled to create a new protective interior screen wall.
In due time, after 6 years of in-fighting, bean-counting, horse-trading, design development and construction, the new 2 and a half storey children home finally mark its completion on January 20th, 2022 with a total built-up of 5700 square feet. Despite the pandemic and experiencing 2 major lockdowns, it is a beacon of hope, just like the burnt roof tile screen wall, it symbolizes a gesture of recovery, regeneration and resilience. We wish this will remedy the children who have suffered from violence and inspire people in creating a more supportive and brighter environment.
Designed by VERITAS Architects Sdn Bhd
The VERITAS Design Group was founded in 1987 on the principles of constant innovation and a commitment to the highest standards of professionalism.
Today, VERITAS is led by its Founder and Group President David Mizan Hashim and Vice President Lillian Tay, supported by a team of 18 Principals in Malaysia and across the world. These leaders are backed by a team of almost 300 qualified professionals and support staff establishing VERITAS as one of the top 100 multi-disciplinary design practices on earth.
VERITAS, began as an architectural practice, but now offers a full range of supporting design and related services for the built environment through subsidiary companies. These include Interior Design, Landscape Design, Planning, Environmental Consulting, Engineering, Quantity Surveying, Project Management and Claim Consulting. VERITAS services also include the niche disciplines of traffic, social, and environmental impact assessments.
The VERITAS headquarters is located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia while branch offices in Georgetown, Penang and Johor Bahru provide effective service delivery across the peninsular. And since 2021 our Kota Kinabalu branch office has extended the presence of VERITAS to East Malaysia.
VERITAS expanded its international presence by opening its first overseas office in Dubai in 2005, followed by offices in Ho Chi Minh City in 2008, Delhi in 2009, Melbourne in 2010, Portland (USA) in 2011, London in 2017, Singapore in 2019, and both Tokyo and Jakarta in 2021. As of 2023, the Melbourne and Dubai offices have closed, with the UK office following suit in 2024. The remaining six international offices continue to collaborate closely, providing integrated design services to clients worldwide.
DIFFERENTIATORS
The success of VERITAS can be attributed to many factors which set the practice apart from its peers. Firstly, its total and unwavering commitment to the highest ideals and standards of design has won the group and its Clients countless design and business awards, accolades and forms of recognition over the past 38 years.
VERITAS’ customized multi-disciplinary service structure, which is called VERITAS Integrated Professional Services or VIPs, provides its Clients with the option of a streamlined, trouble-free, efficient and cost-competitive “one-stop-shop” for engagement of consultants. As a result, for most projects VERITAS provides multiple, if not totally integrated, professional services.
VERITAS’ commitment to the principles of sustainability and resilience are evinced by the high number of its certified facilitators for various international green-building accreditations including GBI, GreenRe, LEED etc. VERITAS has also created a customized sustainability certification system called GreenCheck and an in-house carbon-tracking/reduction program called the CARE Scheme. The Group’s subsidiary VERITAS Environment Sdn. Bhd. which specializes in the technical field of energy cost reduction and waste management, reaffirms the Group’s leadership in this increasingly important aspect of the design profession. These initiatives have established the profile of VERITAS as the undisputed leader in environmentally sustainable design in the region.
Technologically, the complete digitization of all design, drafting and documentation processes at VERITAS and the continuous investment and training in the latest Building Information Modelling (BIM), Industrialized Building Systems (IBS) technologies has ensured a greater level of coordination and attention to detail. Its investment in Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) mediums has advanced the Group’s creative presentation capabilities. And finally, its adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms to transform the design process, will ensure VERITAS remains at the cutting-edge of the design practice. This technical edge serves to provide VERITAS’ Clients with a strategic advantage in a competitive market.
Quality Assurance is a key part of VERITAS’ corporate culture. ISO certifications; 9001:2008, 14001:2004 and OHSAS18001:2007 ensure that its work procedures and systems meet the rigorous international standards of quality demanded by the building and construction industry today. VERITAS’ commitment to high construction quality standards is manifest in the creation of its own customized quality control certification program named VERITAS QCheck.
Lastly, VERITAS is a corporate member of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), which is dedicated to the UN’s 17 Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs). VERITAS is also a member of Transparency International (TI), a global organization dedicated to ending corruption and graft. The Group’s corporate social responsibility program, called the VERITAS Fund for Excellence (VFE), is a hyper-active contributor to worthy causes in the fields of education, environment and design. In this respect, VERITAS is proud to represent a benchmark to its Clients on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) aspirations.