The ‘End-lot’ House is a remodelled urban home located in Bangsar, a bustling neighbourhood in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The original structure was built in the 1980s with low ceilings and floors split into 4 different levels within a two-storey structure. The project came together as an exercise of extending the existing structure to accommodate a couple, their two young children and visiting guests in a comfortable family home. Read more about this project on designboom and archdaily
Kampung Endah Library: We have recently completed a library in a Malaysian west coast village called Kampung Endah with a population for 2000 people. The new library has been remodelled from an existing dilapidated structure. More details here.
On 19th September 2018, Director-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay named Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia as the World Book Capital for the year 2020. In conjunction with this, a series of micro-libraries were built all over the city. The Bamboo library located within the grounds of Perdana Botanical Gardens was designed by us as part of the initiative.
Rad about our story in ‘Self-Made: Creative Lives in Southeast Asia’ by Stephanie Peh – a book about ‘start-up stories of architects, artists, designers, photographers and filmmakers and how they navigate through terrains of uncertainty to pursue their dreams while keeping the lights on’.
Here are the latest pictures of our mini library at Perdana Botanical Gardens Kuala Lumpur. Nearing completion, this little structure will serve as a free book kiosk built out of bamboo and colourful translucent polycarbonates. It is located right next to the bamboo playhouse and is conceived as part of Kuala Lumpur World Book Capital 2020 program.
Eleena talks about ‘sustainable building material: bamboo for mass housing’ in a webinar titled Biophilic Architecture and Design organised by Thinkcity & Gamuda on the 22nd May 2020. Together with Eleena speaking is LAr. Khariza Abdul Khalid COO of Gamuda Parks.
Pleased to receive the latest issue of Architecture Malaysia with our Karwa Mosque on the cover.
Proud to announce our bamboo terrace home has been selected as winner for the Rethinking the Future award. Click here for details.
We’ll be discussing our take on ‘solidarity with nature’ at an online seminar program at NTU CCA Ideas Fest by @ntu_ccasingapore guest curated by IDEASCITY and NEW MUSEUM NEW YORK. Titled ‘Solidarity with Nature’ catch the livestream from 10.00am to 10.00pm MYT 22nd February 2020 here.
Local and international artists and community leaders will speak on topics including food diasporas, the archives as commons, capitalism and the extreme self, emergent medias and speech, ecofeminism and community, poetics of migration, strategies for combatting climate change, speculative futures, and more.
Embracing year 2020 with much enthusiasm and excitement for forthcoming exhibitions, talks, a book publication in progress and a number of live projects due for completion. Image is of terasek house in its final stages of construction. More details of this project in the upcoming months.
#GSAPPconversations: A Podcast Series from the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation
In episode #82, architect Eleena Jamil speaks with MARCH student Lucy Navarro about her practice in Southeast Asia. Her work has been founded on research into specific social and climatic imperatives of each project brief within a broader cultural framework. She shares with us her vision on the potential of vernacular architecture and sustainable building materials, such as bamboo and timber, in Kuala Lumpur. Click on image to listen.
We have just completed an urban mosque called Karwa Mosque located in a urban site in Tanjong Tokong Penang. More details available on our portfolio page.
We are featured in ‘Breaking Ground: Architecture by Women’ written by Jane Hall and published by Phaidon – A visual survey of architecture designed by women from the early twentieth century to the present day #breakingground #architecturebywomen #phaidonpublications
Eleena has been invited to speak at Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation on the 14th of October 2019 for its Fall 2019 Lecture Series.
As we are struggling to cope with our consumption waste, carelessly disposing it into the atmosphere, land and ocean, we ran a masterclass at Institut Kraftangan Malaysia with British Council Arts exploring the relationships between arts and crafts and sustainability. Students gather surplus, waste and biodegradable materials found around their homes and studios and develop ideas how they may be incorporated into their work. This session is developed by British Council Arts Malaysia under the #CraftingFutures program.
Pleased to be handing over this mosque to the local community in the weeks to come. More details of this project available soon. Photos by Marc Tey
Our Karwa mosque located in the urban setting of Tanjong Tokong in the island of Penang is in its final lap of completion. This new urban mosque replaces an old structure located in a busy intersection of an old Malay neighboourhood within the bustling north eastern part of the island. More details coming soon.
The proposal explores the potential of using bamboo to build permanent and comfortable contemporary homes in urban and suburban areas. It references typical terrace houses built across Malaysia characteristic of 22 feet wide frontages that overlooks out to the street. The underlying idea is change the perception of bamboo into a modern and everyday construction material just like bricks, steel or concrete. Read about the project on designboom
Wangsa House is a refurbishment of an existing semi-detached house in a state of disrepair to bring in more light and air through blurring f boundaries. More details of this project to follow soon.
We have just completed a new community centre called the Buzz.ar for a new housing township in Kota Kemuning, Selangor. Click here for more details.
Our work form part of an exhibition at ARCHI-DEPOT Museum in Tokyo running from 6th of February through to 6th of May 2019. In conjunction with the exhibition, our principal is invited to speak at the ‘Commemorative Talk’ at the museum on the 23rd of February 2019. Also speaking are Indonesian architect Andra Matin and Japanese architect Fuminori Nousaku.
Photos by Takuya Wakabayashi
This week we are running one of the masterclasses for the Crafting Futures Pop-up Studio at Institut Kraftangan Negara organised by British Council Arts Malaysia and Glasgow School of Art, where we are also commissioned to design a ‘pavilion-like’ bamboo structure. The pavilion will act as a framework and a physical symbol of the “Pop-up Studio” intervention by IKN students from the weaving, ceramic, metalwork, woodwork and batik studios. Look up our twitter and Instagram accounts for updates of their progress.
Click here for more project details
Read more about project on designboom
We are looking forward to a new year at the studio with a number of projects in various stages of completion. Look out for updates on EJA.
We are ecstatic to make it on the shortlist of 5 practices vying for Dezeen’s Architect of the Year award 2018! Shortlisted practices include Christ & Gantenbein, Switzerland, COBE, Denmark, Jamie Fobert Architects, UK and MAD, China.
We are thrilled to announce that we are in the running for the Architect of the Year Award in the inaugural Dezeen Awards 2018
We made the ‘longlist’ which comprises of 10 practices worldwide.
Regional judges including our principal Eleena reflect on the quality of the INDE.Awards 2018 submissions, and the significance of architecture and design produced in Asia Pacific.
We have just completed an interior fit out exercise for a research institute in Kuala Lumpur where workspace partitions are crafted from industrial polycarbonate sheets and acoustic fabric panels framed with laminated rubberwood. Rubberwood are obtained from rubber trees and is considered an eco-friendlier source of timber than other hardwood types as they are faster to grow and are often leftovers from plantations after their ‘trees have ceased producing rubber sap’. The semi-translucent polycarbonate panels of the partitions provide privacy to workers without cutting off visual connection completely.
For more details of project, click here.
Eleena will be speaking at Design Forum 2018 organised by PAM Sarawak Chapter on the 28th of April 2018. Speakers include Jeremy Mcleod (Breath Architecture, Melbourne), Vin Varavarn (Vin Varavarn Architects, Bangkok), Lim In Chong (Inchscape Sdn Bhd, Kuala Lumpur) and Ling Hao – Linghao Architects, Singapore
Follow our posts on our new Instagram account @eleenajamilarchitect for a variety of past and new projects as well as news and updates.
Click on image above to go directly to it.
Eleena will be speaking at the Department of Architecture, School of Design & Environment, National University of Singapore on 16th of March 2018 as part of the Construe & Construct Lecture & Exhibition Series.
Its been hectic for our team trying to complete this little structure in a week, but we are extremely pleased with the results. As part of World Urban Forum installations, the pavilion – called the urban brains – will act as an incubator of ideas where visitors are encouraged to express their urban pledges for a better city by writing them down on the coloured bamboo rings.
One week to WUF09 KL and the Urban Brains Bamboo Pavilion slowly taking shape.
World Urban Forum 09 Kuala Lumpur runs from the 7th through to the 13th of February 2018.
2 weeks to WUF09 KL and we’re testing a mock-up of bamboo rings on frames at the workshop for Urban Brains Bamboo Pavilion.
World Urban Forum 09 Kuala Lumpur runs from the 7th through to the 13th of February 2018.
We are pleased to announce that we are working on the “Urban Brain” pavilion, a bamboo installation designed by us in collaboration with UN-HABITAT (represented by architects Carmelo Ignaccolo and Anastasia Ignatova) for the World Urban Forum 9 Kuala Lumpur running from the 7 through to 13 February 2018. More details will be available soon.
The Sri Rampai Pedestrian Bridge spans across a busy dual-carriageway in a thriving residential and business neighbourhood of Wangsa Maju, to the east of Kuala Lumpur. It forms part of a wider redevelopment of the area that turned it into a vibrant self-contained township featuring housing, malls, shops and offices. This 110-meter-long bridge provides a safe pedestrian crossing between the main commercial areas and the LRT (light rapid train) station.
Read further on designboom
We have recently completed a new studio designed by ourselves in Cyberjaya where spaces are conceived as a series of dark and light zones to suggest quiet and livelier collaborative working environments. The main working studio has a layout that is light-filled and open, allowing everyone in the EJA family to sit together in a single tall space, creating a vibrant and efficient communicative environment.
Eleena will be serving on the judging panel for Inde Awards 2018. INDE Awards are an annual industry recognised awards program for the architecture and design industry in the Asia Pacific region.
Eleena will be speaking at the SIA Conference@ArchXpo running during Archifest 2017 Singapore. The conference will be held on 4 OCT, 9.30AM-6.00PM @ ArchXpo, Marina Bay Sands Singapore, Halls B & C.
Eleena will be delivering a lecture at the Department of Architecture, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) Surabaya in Indonesia on the 16th of September 2017 where she is also serving on a jury panel for the architectural competition titled Kompetisi Nasional Tugas Akhir. Other jury members include Zenin Adrian (MA-RU) and Andra Matin (Andra Matin Architects)
https://www.events-arch-its.org/
EJA has been shortlisted for the 2017 Firm of the Year Award for Sustainable Architecture by the American Architecture Prize Awards Program. Link to AAP Awards site can be found here.
The process of architecture is complex and at the building site is where ideas start to take shape under the impact of a complex handcrafted process. During the making of a building, the character of the project, its material presence and construction language start to emerge. For us, building construction is a reciprocal process – we feed information to help it take shape but we also learn from it. Our Bamboo Playhouse exhibit for KLAF2017 documents the complex and lengthy process of design and construction in a series of sketches, working models, site photos, mock-ups and reports.
Eleena provides a local’s guide for the city of Kuala Lumpur in the May 2017 issue of Virgin Australia’s inflight magazine Voyeur . See full article here
Our Meranti Pavilion is now at the AIA Conference of Architecture 2017 which runs from the 27th through to the 29th of April 2017.
Pleased with the efficient ‘mock’ assembly of timber modules at the workshop, the Meranti Pavilion is now ready to be disassembled and shipped to Orlando for the AIA Conference on Architecture 2017. The pavilion will be placed at the expo hall booth 1147: Malaysian Timber Council.
We are pleased to have been selected to design Meranti Pavilion for Malaysian Timber Council at the AIA Conference on Architecture in Orlando, Florida running between April 27th and 29th 2017.
Together with SABD Taylor’s University, EJA will be at Ruang by Thinkcity on the 25th of November, 3 pm to talk about the building process and construction details of the Shadow Garden Pavilion.
The Bamboo Playhouse receives honourable mention in “Installation & Structures’ category at the American Architecture Prize 2016.
Video captures the building process of the pavilion by SABD Taylor’s University & EJA teams for SGFA Gallery
Ida and Yusri of EJA at our newly completed ‘Shadow Garden Pavilion’ at Shalini Ganendra Fine Art Gallery after labouring away for the past month together with Taylor’s University students to complete in time for the opening.
Thank you!
More details of the pavilion will be available soon
Our bamboo pavilion in Kuala Lumpur has been shortlisted for the LEAF Awards 2016 (Leading Architecture Forum Award 2016) in the Best Sustainable Development category. Winners will be announced at the LEAF Awards Gala Dinner in London on the 14th October 2016.
Click here to read article featured in ‘architecture malaysia’ Vol 28 Issue 2/April 2016
Click here to go to awards page
An update of one of our current projects working in collaboration with SGFA Gallery and SABD Taylor’s University. A workshop was held at the Timber Lab at Taylor’s recently with participating students to test the pavilion’s connection details based on traditional wood working methods.
Eleena will be speaking at LIVING MONSOON Design Talk 03 in Cochin India on the 23rd of April 2016. The talk is organised by the Indian Institute of Architects – Cochin Centre and will be held at the Gateway Hotel, Marine Drive, Cochin. The Theme: ‘LIVING MONSOON’ is a curated series of design talks with the objective of igniting deliberations on authentic culture of architecture and urbanism appropriate to the climes, environs and socio – cultural dynamics of regions with high precipitation and bio diversity in the Tropical zone. It is a two-year program that will culminate in April 2017 with a global congregation of architects & scholars. https://www.facebook.com/livingmonsoon/
We are pleased to see the playhouse being used as it was intended for – a flexible space for the public to enjoy. A colouring competition was held there recently, with children using the space in numerous ways. A traditional dance performance also took place at the pavilion, with each dancer occupying an individual deck.
We have recently completed a pedestrian bridge spanning across a busy road in Wangsa Maju area of Kuala Lumpur. The bridge allows pedestrians to safely cross from a large retail/business park to a light rapid transit (LRT) train station nearby.
Click here to learn more about the project. Photo by Pixelaw.
Sepang House has been featured in Singapore based D+A Magazine issue 089 2015/2016. Click here to read article.
Sepang House is defined by a large sheltering roof with deep overhangs and shaded terraces. Using a combination of material such as concrete, wood and bricks, it develops a material language that echoes its tropical setting.
For further details, click here.
The Bamboo Playhouse is shortlisted in the ‘small projects category’ at the World Architecture Festival 2015. We will be presenting the project at the festival in Singapore which runs from the 4th through to the 6th of November 2015.
Our pedestrian bridge in an expanding city suburb in Kuala Lumpur is currently in progress. Spanning across a busy road, it creates a safe crossing to the LRT train station.
Completed almost 6 years ago in 2009, we are pleased to see that our wind-resilient bamboo classroom prototype in Camarine-Sur, Philippines (the Millennium School Project) is still standing strong and wonderfully adapted by elementary school pupils.
The proposed Spiral Pedestrian and Cycle Link in Kuala Lumpur is one of our projects shortlisted in the World Architecture Festival Awards 2015. We will be presenting the project during the festival which runs from the 4th to the 6th of November 2015 at the Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Bamboo Playhouse has been featured in the ‘upcoming project’ section in the 7th Edition of ARCHINESIA, an Indonesia-based architectural publication.
One of our residential projects, the Sepang House, is coming close to completion. The detached house with a large sheltering roof is located in Sepang, Selangor and is progressing swiftly towards completion in June 2015 with the contractor now concentrating on the interiors.
Eleena is one of the four mentoring architects in the Undo-Redo Workshop organised by #BetterCities running between the 2nd of March until the 13th of March 2015. She is leading the ‘Progressive Future” group where it will explore new potentials for a public site in Damansara Jaya. The group will explore the idea of an interactive environment, an environment with forms that would be able to be altered to accommodate the needs of the current users and the changing conditions of the future.
Click here for link to the workshop on #BetterCities facebook.
Vermani House has been featured in ‘architecture malaysia’ Vol 27 Issue 1, Feb 2015.
The playhouse proves to be a very challenging project for us but is slowly taking shape along the lake in Perdana Botanical Gardens
Desa Mahkota School featured in FuturArc Nov-Dec 2014 Issue
EJA’s bamboo classroom prototype (Millennium School Project) in Camarines Sur, Philipines is featured in Bamboo Architecture & Design published by Braun Publishing. Publication details available here.
Eleena will be speaking at the Global Challenges | Local Solutions: The Manila Urban Initiative for Southeast Asia organised by Goethe-Institut Philippinen which will run from 18 to 21 September 2014. Eleena’s talk will centre around ideas encouraging sustainable mobility and improving the ecological connections in the city of Kuala Lumpur. For more details of the conference, click here
Recently completed, this concrete house is a remodeling exercise of an existing 2-storey semi-detached house in the centre of Kuala Lumpur. To turn it into a new family home for a couple with a young child, the existing has been stripped bare leaving only its structural frames onto which new walls and roof are added. The idea here is that the house will be rough, to feel real, inside and outside – and to do away with ‘cosmetics’ of paint and plaster. As such, the house displays raw construction and tectonic quality – giving it a special poetic dimension.
See Vermani House on Designboom & Archdaily
Photograph by Marc Tey
Our Bamboo Playhouse project has been shortlisted in the “Future Culture Projects’ category at the World Architecture Festival 2014. We will be presenting the project during the festival which will run from the 1st to 3rd of October 2014 at Marina Bay Sands Singapore
EJA will be participating in the Time-Space-Existence exhibition at the Palazzo Bembo, Venice which is a collateral event of the 2014 International Architecture Biennale curated by Rem Koolhaas. The Palazzo Bembo exhibition is curated by Rene Rietmeyer of Global Art Affairs Foundation and it brings together an international group of architects with different cultural backgrounds and who are in different stages of their career. An opening preview party will be held on the 5th & 6th of June. All welcome.
Location:Venice, Italy
From:June 5 & June 6, 2014 between 6.00pm and 10:00pm
Details:Time Space Existence VIP Preview Party in Venice, Italy.
We were unplaced for the competition, but thank you to the wonderful team in the office for all your hard work.
EJA’s HOME Singapore project has been selected for the “Smart City: The Next Generation, Focus Southeast Asia” exhibition held at Aedes in Berlin, Germany. The exhibition runs from May 18 until July 4, 2013. EJA will also be participating in the symposium organised in conjunction with the exhibition on the 8th & 9th of June 2013, where the HOME Singapore project will be presented by Eleena. For more details click here.
EJA’s submission for Triumph Pavilion 2013 organised by Archtriumph titled The Peace Pavilion received honourable mention.
A proposal for elderly low-income housing in the city of Singapore received ‘honourable mention’ in the international HOME competition organised by Building Trust International. Click here for more details
EJA’s proposal for ‘School for Burma’ or ‘Border School’ in Thailand is shortlisted at the World Architecture Festival 2012 to be held in Singapore between the 3rd and 5th of October 2012
The Millennium Bamboo School project forms part of the exhibition organised by Cooper Hewitt – National Design Museum, running at the United Nations Headquarters New York from October 15, 2011 running through to January 9, 2012. The CITIES exhibition is currently touring the United States.
It took three long years to see this project complete, but we are simply delighted with the results. Please click here to find out more about this project.
Eleena’s been invited to judge the ‘Young Architect Idea Sketch’ competition organised by PAM in Kuala Lumpur
Eleena’s been invited to judge the international ‘Design Against the Elements’ competition in Manila, Philippines
The built classroom prototype of the Millennium School project was shortlisted in the ‘Learning Category’ at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) 2010 held in Barcelona.
EJA moved to a new office located at Sering Ukay. It is slightly more ‘suburbia’ than the previous location, but its larger, brighter and also quieter with great views of surrounding hills. We love it!
EJA is pleased to announce that it has won first place in the Norwich Union Flood Resistant Housing Competition organized by RIBA.
EJA was named first prize winner in the Millennium School International Competition organised by MyShelter Foundation Phillippines
