INFINITY, the design by Jaihar Jailani Ismail and Noor Syahidah Abdullah won the grand prize of RM10,000.00 in the TRANSEAT – The MRT Putrajaya Line Underground Stations Bench Design Competition. 

The winners of TRANSEAT were announced in a simple ceremony held at the Malaysia Rapid Transit Corporation Sdn Bhd (MRT Corp) headquarters on 3 May 2021. 

Handing out the prizes to the winners were MRT Corp Chief Executive Officer Datuk Mohd Zarif Hashim. Also present at the event were MRT Corp’s MRT Putrajaya Line Project Director Dato’ Amiruddin Ma’aris, Majlis Rekabentuk Malaysia (MRM) Director Encik Sulaiman Arshad and Persatuan Pereka Perindustrian Malaysia (PEREKA) Vice President Encik Zafri Zakaria Merican.

TRANSEAT was organised by MRT Corp to find the best design for benches of the eight underground stations of the Putrajaya (PY) Line. 

The competition, which ran from 1 June 2020 until 31 July 2020, was carried out in collaboration with MRM and supported by PEREKA.

A total of 352 participants, with many organising themselves into groups, submitted a total of 569 designs. The participants were made up of professionals, students and even general members of the public.

INFINITY, which was also the name of the husband-and-wife, freelance industrial designer-and-academician team who are based in Johor Bahru, was intended to compliment the architectural design and built of the PY Line stations.

The first runner-up was claimed by Muhammad Nazli Karamazaman, whose design won him RM7,000.00. Nazli who is an architect designer with NVZL Studio, used craft motives as the essential element of his bench design.

Ng Wai How and Yap Qiang Mei, who formed team WHDY won RM5,000.00 as the second runner-up. Their X-Seat bench design echoed the theme of “Vibrancy”. 

A special prize, the best submission by a student, was won by Kamarul Azizi Kamarul Azhan, who submitted Koreusi. The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia student was rewarded with RM5,000.00 for his effort, which was based on the “Moulding Forms’ theme.

These winning designs may be used by MRT Corp for the benches in eight of the nine underground stations of the PY Line. (The Tun Razak Exchange Station is already in operations under the MRT Kajang Line and will be part of the PY Line later). If adopted, the design will be unveiled in January 2023 when the second phase of the line begins operations.

The Competition’s Stage One evaluation was conducted on 29 September 2020 with the panel of judges comprising representatives from MRT Corp, MRM and PEREKA as well as MMC-Gamuda Joint Ventures Sdn Bhd as the PY Line Turnkey Contractor.  

Their job was to pick the Top 10 submissions with the highest scores which were shortlisted for Stage Two evaluation. They looked at the concept, design innovation and creativity as well as functionality.  In addition, the quality, material and construction, together with the cost were also scrutinised, in order to select the best designs.

The Stage One also included online voting by the employees of MRT Corp to select their top 10 designs. The accumulated points from the scoring by the judges and the employees determined the 10 finalists.

The final judging was held on 15 December 2020 at the MRM Innovative Hall in Bukit Jalil where the finalists presented their designs to a panel of judges comprising of MRT Corp, MRM and PEREKA leadership team.