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Huat Lim, Malaysia
Huat Lim co-founded ZlgDesign which is today headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. He studied at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, under the tutelage of Sir Peter Cook, who later was given the prestigious post of Bartlett Chair of Architecture at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London. Huat's early career included a ten year stint with Norman Foster at Foster and Partners London offices.
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In 1984 he moved to the Lyons and Nimes offices during the construction phases of the Nimes Mediateque Project. Huat lived in France for two years, exploring the design offices of Jourda Perraudin Architectes, Lyons and a brief encounter with the offices of Renzo Piano and his colleagues at RFR Paris.
Huat taught for a short period at the Architectural Association School of Architecture with Peter Cook and also with David Duster at the Bartlett before returning to Foster and Associates in their current office at Hester Road London to complete the King Cross redevelopment project and the Chelsea Reach Offices.
A short stay at Zaha Hadid's offices followed, where he worked on the Vitra Fire Station Project. Then he went on to work for the late Ron Herron, who was one of the founders of the Archigram movement. At Imagination Ltd, Huat met with Gary Withers. He worked on Canada Water Station, one of the Jubilee Line Extension Projects, at the time under the direction of Roland Paoletti who hailed from Hong Kong.
In his current work, Huat's work revolves around ideas and concepts that go beyond pre-defined architectural pursuits or entities. For Huat Lim it is not archetypes that matter, but the human experience of structures. "We simply want to engage the human experience," says Huat. If it doesn't engage the human experience, and it doesn't stir any emotion, it goes out the window.
ZlgDesign’s first building in Kuala Lumpur was the Capitol Hotel, a 160-room design hotel in the heart of the city, which remains completely modern to this today. The firm then began working on the BOH Visitor Centre in the Cameron Highlands region of Malaysia. This project required tremendous attention but was also lauded domestically and internationally – receiving recommendation for the AgaKhan Award and recognised as one of the most extraordinary buildings in Malaysia, placing the project in the company of the Petronas Twin Towers.
Huat has been involved with the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma in conjunction with the Zhongtai Holdings Lighting company headquarters in Shanghai and their widely known Beijing Head Offices. In Singapore ZlgDesign has overseen the construction of the BIOPolis Facades and also the MRT station master control rooms. With TRHY Huat has overseen the competition entry for the National Library of Singapore and after that helped to design and develop the entire concept to the tender stages. Huat also helped LDY of London win the XIAN Airport Terminal and Master plan Commission. In Belfast and Croydon Huat Lim has submitted winning entries for the Clinical Design markets, including the Alexandria Hospital Design Competition.
In 2007, Zlgdesign received the International Biennial “Barbara Cappochin” Prize for Architecture awarded by the International Barbara Cappochin Foundation.
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