Reshaping the suburban lifestyle: Q&A with Mr. Bon Eng, Simplex Architects & Associates Sdn Bhd

INFO
Simplex Architects & Associates Sdn Bhd
Address: C-1-01 Block C, 1st Floor, Jalan PJU 1A/41B, NZX Commercial Centre, Ara Jaya, 47301 Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia.
Tel: +603 7885 8388

With this township, what did your role as master planner entail?

The thing we’re very much interested in is location — in the case of Royal Valley, it was about half an hour to 45 minutes’ drive from downtown Guangzhou. It was a new area and this site was beautifully green! Unfortunately, the first thing the developer did was flatten the ground! The argument was that its original hilly state made it hard to develop, but my first reaction was, ‘Pity, the site was already perfect.’ Thankfully, we managed to persuade them later on with reasons to take advantage of its original form and they agreed by acquiring several sites nearby.

Now they’d done that, it wasn’t going to be just another 46-acre development — it’d become four times the size of its original plan and with that, we were more confident in delivering a township that had a focus on lifestyle.

How did you make this project different from the rest?

When you’re trying to develop a new neighborhood that is more on the outskirts of the city, you must have a certain attraction to it; something that would convince people to live away from the city. Our approach at the time was firstly the natural surroundings. With this hilly site came a lot of spring water and we took the opportunity to direct this spring down to the flattened ground, giving the place a canal design.

Was the township planned towards a more sustainable design?

This township is more environmentally friendly in terms of design. For one, we encourage more use of natural air, thanks to Guangzhou’s cooler weather and the mountainous area it’s built on. At the same time, the design, quality and the developer’s reputation play a part in making the project sustainable. In fact, the market sentiment is now focused on landscapes and almost all the reputable housing estates have those. To them, a good landscape is a type of luxury, so you can expect developers to invest more in landscape architecture.

Were there challenges during the planning phase?

Surprisingly, the biggest challenge was not so much on the technical elements but more on convincing the client as their perception was very different from ours. For example, when I’d recommended building the canal, they’d thought of it as a waste of land — this, in itself, shows two very different lifestyles. It was as though they’d never imagined or experienced enjoying a good cup of espresso whilst enjoying the view. Nonetheless as time goes by, we believe our development would be more evergreen in the southern region of China than European style houses, thanks to the Southeast Asian influence and experience we have in tropical designs.

Tell us about the property market in China.

The Chinese market has changed drastically these past 20 years and there are more people than land in China, so they don’t encourage big-sized property developments in order to preserve resources for other uses, even in the suburban areas. In fact, the Chinese government is very strict with rules as they don’t want to waste land. That’s why it is rare to find mansions like the ones in America.

Needless to say, China is also different to Malaysia because you can’t build your own houses unless you’re in a village — you would need a development licence to build in the first place! The buyer’s attitude is generally focused on pricing and location but in the recent 10 years, markets have softened and there are more properties that are more value for money i.e. the developer now includes interior fittings unlike the past where all you’d get is a bare concrete unit.

Did you think there would be a problem by selling this idea to the city folk?

All in all, we were able to build seven canals and according to the master plans, 75 percent of the housing are exposed to water, making the environment more dynamic with several views instead of the conventional green scenery. Plus, the vision for this project was to build something extraordinary and different, which was what the canal township achieved.

In comparison to the life in Guangzhou city itself, people live in very congested places and if there was any opportunity to live in a landed bungalow in the outskirts of the city, it would be a lifestyle envied by many. It would be nice to live in nature, speak to nature and appreciate nice weather especially the blue skies, which is much more beautiful than the skyline in the city. In the process, we also advised the developers to tell the people a story or convey the lifestyle they could have in this project.