Tell us briefly about your background.

I grew up in Petaling Jaya and initially pursued dentistry at Universiti Malaya. I quit after the first week. I just couldn’t deal with all the blood, so I left in time for another person to take up the spot. I then decided to do architecture, which was closer to what I had a natural affinity for, but I enrolled in a Joint Program of engineering and architecture because I wasn’t sure I would be able to get a scholarship after that to pursue the postgraduate what is required for architecture.

So I qualified as a civil engineer as far as America was concerned, even though when I came back, I ended up having to go through a lot of recognition exams again because, till today, we have inherited a very colonial-oriented system where American degrees are assumed as not meeting the expectations of our local education system.

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Why did you decide to join Veritas in 1993?

David Hashim founded Veritas in 1987. We met him when I came back because I was meeting fellow graduates from American schools, and we started this lobby called MAD, made up of architects with American degrees fighting for the recognition and accreditation of our degrees.

He invited me to join as an associate, and I’ve been here for 30 years. Before returning, I worked in New York in one of these top skyscraper design companies, so I think David also wanted someone with that type of exposure because he always had big ambitions to have an internationally oriented company.

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Has your role in the firm evolved since you joined?

In the early years, we were both running projects. However, as we grew, we focused on what we were strong at. David is a good manager, so he oversees the overall business aspect while I focus on what I’m more passionate about, doing the design work. So, in that way, it’s a good sharing of responsibilities, which is the case till today.

How large is the firm currently?

In Kuala Lumpur, we are about 180 or so, and we have offices in Penang and Johor; we also have interior, landscape design, planning, environmental and sustainability design and engineering offices, which take close to 300. We also have representative offices in countries where we hope to do more work, such as Vietnam.

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Is there a distinctive Veritas style?

Because we are a large corporate structure, there are design principles everyone tries to abide by that represent what we believe in. One of them is undoubtedly sustainable buildings. In fact, we were doing sustainable design long before it became so well-engineered and labelled with all the green ratings as far back as 2002-2003.

Our design isn’t about an aesthetic but underlying principles. We always want to have efficient buildings, not so much driven by some sculptural form that looks iconic on the skyline but serves its purpose for the people who will be in those buildings, by the client who’s the developer or the corporate entity.

I think a building that serves its purpose should create not just a space the clients think they need but ones they didn’t know they needed—spaces that will help enhance corporate cohesion or a sense of community. These are the driving principles of how we start our design, and depending on location, we always try to put some of the local place and its links to Malaysia in it. I’ve spent a long time trying to put Malaysian timber on the outside of buildings, not just as decorative screens and on the inside and using design motifs on our buildings that are expressive or drawn from our rich cultural heritage, such as weaving or batik forms.

An aesthetic does not drive us but how the building responds to the needs of its users. The location and place must always meet a high engineering performance regarding energy efficiency and sustainable material choices that are not unkind to the Earth. 

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What would you attribute the longevity of Veritas to?

I would say that the structure we have is where our people get to focus on their respective strengths. For instance, David takes care of business development; he engages clients while understanding what business leaders want.

He also looks at the financial part and ensures that it’s all healthy to enable all involved to be paid well, especially because we all work very hard and long hours in this industry. It’ll be a disaster if you ask me to balance the books.

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Which buildings are you particularly proud of and why?

Starting from the earlier ones, two buildings dealing with the workplace, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and Digi headquarters, were office buildings where we created a focus on the community.

In the Digi HQ, we created a building that was actually an atrium, although that was never in the brief. I often tell my students and fellow architects that a client will tell you how many people they need the space for, but they will forget the places that they actually need. The atrium was appropriate for the type of work that they do. They’re very mobile. They always move around the office and meet anywhere, and there’s also Malaysian timber in the structure.

The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment was designed to perform well as a sustainably designed building, especially because they were the ministry they were. This was back in 2001 and our very first Green Building. That’s also the first building we started to use Malaysian timber for from the start and 20 years on, the timber has fared better than the other steel finishes on the building. Both buildings also respond to the weather because we created outdoor spaces, bringing gardens into the office space.

The third one is the Oxley Towers, which is scheduled to be completed next year. Just one door away from the Four Seasons and KLCC, I’m proud of this building not because it’s 79 stories, which is the tallest building we’ve done in KL, but because it’s probably the tallest building in KL that’s fully done by an all Malaysian team, of architects and engineers.

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What are your thoughts about architecture and design talent in Malaysia and the challenges local firms face when competing with international firms?

I think that the first major one, Petronas Towers, and the whole KLCC development was needed and timely for us at the time. We were just embarking on a long and continuing journey of intensive development in Malaysia, and the whole development set high standards not just for
the professionals but also for the industry.

However, I hope that by now, they have faith in Malaysian professionals, including those coming from Malaysian schools.

I think we do well for a small nation in the global arena. But sometimes, I feel many corporations and the government are slow to recognise that, at least by now, Malaysians have come of age and are the highest professionals everywhere. In fact, one of the virologists picked to join the international commission probing the origin of COVID-19 was Emeritus Prof Datuk Dr Lam Sai Kit, who is Malaysian.

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Tell us about your tenure as president of PAM. Were there any issues or changes that you advocated during your office?

One of the issues was about recognising Malaysian Talent. Also, I continued to push the issue of accrediting degrees outside of what we have inherited from the British era, where only British schools were recognised. Now, there’s a different system; every university has to go through some assessment system all over again, which at least levels the playing field.

During my tenure as PAM president, I also spent time looking at the economics of the whole profession, the distribution of projects and where the income was going. I’ve highlighted to the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) that there was a net outflow of architecture, and it’s no longer about the pride of getting a job; it’s about job creation. It’s about paying the highest salaries for people there so we don’t lose more talent to other places.

We lose talent not just to Singapore; I have staff in my office that are pinched by top offices in London. We need to recognise that it’s just not the prestige thing; we need to keep some of these large projects to give work to Malaysian professionals and create jobs and higher salaries for our professionals.

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Why is sustainable urban design and planning important to you, and what are your thoughts on this in Malaysia?

I’ve always had the ethic of not being wasteful, perhaps because I come from a very simple family background, and we were nowhere near the high-income range.

I’ve found that this ethic of not being wasteful is quite common in many less prosperous countries. We did a couple of buildings in Bangladesh around 2007, and I saw sustainable practices everywhere. They recycled everything, even the cement packaging, into grocery bags in the supermarket. It was done out of need and is not rocket science.

It’s just an ethic, and more important than any Green rating system, is to propagate the ethic of not being wasteful and appreciating nature’s resources, which must be embedded right at the kindergarten level.

Now, because of global consciousness, we know that wastefulness has an enormous impact on the planet with climate change and the loss of biodiversity that comes with it. I think that that should be everybody’s ethic today regardless of the labels that we can put on our building; even if your client does not want to go through the process of applying for the labelling, embed it in the design of every building because buildings are a big consumer of materials.

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Has female representation in the profession improved since joining, and how can this inequality be addressed?

That’s the eternal question that is very hard to answer. In university, the gender balance is equal, but working women just drop out of our industry. The ratio is one woman to two or three men in the industry; because of the high demand for time and a demanding physical presence, which could be an obstacle for women to stay the course in this profession.

It’s tough, but I think it’s one of those professions where there will always be more men than women, which is not good because women potentially bring a lot of talent to design and the making of working spaces. Perhaps things like working from home can help women so that they can juggle homemaker tasks.

Any thoughts about being awarded the PAM gold medal this year?

I’m most honoured and hope it was deserved recognition for 30 years of work, but I think it’s particularly meaningful because I’m the first woman architect to receive it. I hope that helps to encourage women architects to stay the course and not think that it is always a male-dominated industry that’s less forgiving for women and homemakers with families and that we still have the opportunity to do good work and be recognised for it. 

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What are your hopes for the future?

That we continue to be entrusted with larger and more complex work that has often been given away to non-Malaysians or foreigners. I hope that continuing recognition is there so that we can contribute more. I believe we bring to the project an understanding and closeness to how Malaysians live, our local materials and producers that we want to use and ought to celebrate our cultural and artistic heritage.

I hope that having the recognition will lead to more opportunities, not just myself but women in the industry, to be entrusted with good work. I hope that many more young people will go into this industry. I think it’s a very satisfying profession where you feel that you are contributing something to society, it’s not known to make you rich, that’s for sure. Although that’s what I’ve been trying to address, to make sure that some of the larger work comes back to the industry so that remuneration is better and we don’t lose talent.

Because our Malaysian people and talent are one of our everlasting resources, we should be very protective of them and do more than we do now to retain and recognise them. 

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