Monday March 16, 2009
Bard the builder
By WONG LI ZA
An engineer gets creative in building design and poetic pursuits.
FACT FILE
NAME: Dr Muiz Murad
AGE: 33
HOMETOWN: Kuala Lumpur
EDUCATION: SK Kerteh, Terengganu; Royal Military College, KL; Swinburne University of Technology, Australia
OCCUPATION: Environmental sustainable design consultant
CURRENT BASE: Melbourne, Australia
YEARS ABROAD: 13
EMAIL: muizmurad@gmail.com
Love is the poetry of life,
Purity in essence undefined,
Acceptance of imperfections,
Through sincerity ... happiness you shall find.
AT WORK, he designs green buildings but after office hours, Dr Muiz Murad creates poetry, short stories and music.
In fact, the mechanical engineer auditioned for the first season of Australian Idol in 2003 but unfortunately did not get through.
The excerpt above is the second stanza of a poem Muiz wrote in 2007 entitled Love.
“I started getting involved in creative writing around the age of 10. I grew up in a small town called Paka in Terengganu. My family lived in a plot of land next to the beach and my school was 20km away so most days after school were spent on the beach or just at home reading,” he said via e-mail.
Dr Muiz Murad : ‘Building a green building often pushes the limits of both architectural and engineering design.’ “Combine the whole lifestyle and the fact that I am left-handed, I guess everything just came together naturally,” said Muiz, who plays the guitar, organ and composes songs in his free time.
Muiz estimated that he has written over 300 poems and short stories since then, although most have been lost through the years. He plans to publish a selective collection of his poems one day.
“Now, I have about 60 completed and saved pieces of writings. I like to write about life in general but my interest is more on love and loss and romance,” said Muiz, the eldest of four siblings.
Muiz later moved to Kuala Lumpur and attended the Royal Military College in Sungai Besi where he did his secondary education and training, graduating in 1993.
He went to Melbourne in 1996 to study engineering at Swinburne University of Technology and holds a PhD in Computational Fluid Dynamics from the same university.
Previously, Muiz worked as an automotive engineer and was also an associate lecturer and researcher in computational fluid dynamics, aero-acoustics and thermal modelling at Swinburne.
Currently, he is an environmental sustainable design (ESD) consultant with a private company in Melbourne.
Muiz specialises in ESD strategy and computer modelling of sustainable built environments for a range of new buildings and refurbishments including commercial, residential, education, aged care, community and public buildings.
“In a nutshell, we consult on, and design, environment-friendly buildings or green buildings,” said the 33-year-old bachelor.
“Our goal when designing green buildings is to minimise the buildings’ carbon footprint and reduce their maintenance cost while improving the indoor and outdoor conditions.”
His notable project involvements include the ANZ Bank headquarters and the Victoria University Footscray Park Campus in Melbourne, both of which achieved the Five Star Green Star Australian environmental rating standards.
“The ANZ building is a 10-storey, A$500mil project. It was a challenge due to the combination of complex geometrical structure, large floor area and state-of-the-art systems, making it really difficult to model. The computer modelling budget alone was more than A$300,000,” he explained.
Muiz added that the Victoria University building was a complex one with various function rooms.
“At the same time, we had to design the building for optimum passive ventilation with minimum air conditioning and implement various alternative energy resources like a wind turbine, solar cells and geothermal facility.”
Despite the challenges, Muiz remains fired up about his job.
“Building a green building often pushes the limits of both architectural and engineering design. The biggest challenge is building something with little or no point of reference and to coordinate the design work with other members of the design team such as developers, architects, engineering consultants and builders.”
However, his reward comes from seeing a building materialise.
“It’s like looking at something that was impossible becoming a reality in front of you.”
In the long run, Muiz hopes to bring back and implement the sustainable culture in Malaysia.
“A lot needs to be done. Being an academic and consultant, my role is to educate and create awareness on sustainable practices to the general public and to the futuregenerations.”
Muiz also has a heart for charity and has completed two half marathons that raised money for cancer research last year.
“I took part in the cause to stay healthy and help support efforts to find a cure for cancer that has taken some of my friends and family members through the years,” said Muiz, whose goal is to complete a full marathon this year. His other sporting activities are cricket and golf. Muiz plays cricket during the summer with a local club called West Hawthorn Cricket Club.
Before going to Australia, he represented Kuala Lumpur in golf in the 1993 Majlis Sukan Sekolah-sekolah Malaysia (MSSM) Pahang in the 1994 Sukan Malaysia (Sukma).
“I play golf every weekend either socially with my golf buddies or in competition with the Melbourne Vietnamese Golf Group,” said Muiz, who has an 18-hole handicap.
Despite Melbourne’s often erratic weather, Muiz enjoys living in the city.
“I love Melbourne. It’s a beautiful cosmopolitan city with a great blend of cultures, parks, history, food, entertainment and standard of living. This right mix makes it a terrific place to work, play, live and study.”
Against this backdrop, Muiz continues to nurture his creative streak and is writing a fictional novel due for completion at the end of next year.
“It’s about a man’s journey to find his own meaning to life. The theme is centred on family, friendship, love and nationalism,” said Muiz, who harbours hopes of getting it published.
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