Q&A SESSION

“When you work hard, money

and fortune will come to you

eventually.”

Q : What is you and your company design concept

and philosophy?

A : My concept is more to square and boxy design.

We like to play around with spaces in terms of

importance, circulation and composition of a unit.

Q: What sets your firm apart from the others?

A: Our concept emphasized a lot on green builidings.

We want to go back to the basics compared to the

other architects nowadays that only emphasize on

design.

Q : What keeps you motivated?

A. I know my effort will be recognized by people if I

work hard enough.

Q: Have you thought of giving up?

A: : I enjoy doing what I am doing and I have never

thought of giving up. Never have I complained about

my life once because I live it up to my life everyday.

You have to be very determined in order to success.

PROJECT ONE

BUNGALOW

GITA BAYU

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“Talent is 30% ; determination passion and commitment is 70%.”

“I believe that if I have a

steeper learning curve, I will

climb faster and I will know

more things and I will enjoy

in the end.”

Q: How to stay determined?

A: Always ask yourself “When am I going to build

my own building” instead of “what difficulties will

I face”. It is like during driving lessons, you don’t

ask will you meet accidents but when can you get

your license.

Q: What is your core value?

A: Teamwork. Frankly speaking I don’t really like

the name ‘CH&I’ because I wanted to create a

name that belongs to a team. I want the spirit of

togetherness among all my company's workers.

Q: What are the difficulties you faced while you

just started your company?

A: Very fortunately, no.

Michael did his very first project 5 years ago. He has won

quite a number of awards for this project. This is actually

a low budget project, which is a small bungalow. This

project approximately costs RM500,000. He personally

thinks that half a million for a bungalow is actually quite

cheap. He believes that small budget does not matter as

long as the budget can meet the facilities and function

requirements.

This project took him a short 9 months.

Michael likes to design a building whereby when people

see the building, they understand the functions of the

spaces without having to explain. He believes that a good

construction can speak for itself.

His role in this project is to design and meet the client’s

requirement by having a consultation. At first, the client

wanted the house to be 6000 square.ft but Michael

suggested 5000 square.ft as he thinks it is not necessary

to utilize the whole space and it is better if 40% of the

land is used for building and 60% of it is used for garden

turf.

He thinks it is important to advise clients of what is

important and what is not to acknowledge them about

things they don’t know.

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CH&I COMPANY

COMPANY BACKGROUND

STRUCTURE

CH&I COMPAY - OFFICE

Vision and mission

Recognition KNOWN Awards

2010 Michael finally managed to set up his own

company namely CH&I when he was 36

years old. CH&I is actually his and his

partner's initials.

CH stands for Chee Hong where I actually

stands for Ivan, his partner.

During the first year, he got his first project

which was the bungalow.

Michael took this as an opportunity to

design the house according to his own

concept.

On the first year, there were

only Michael and his partner

Ivan in the company. The

number of employees

increased to 7 on the next year,

12 on the third year and 16 on

the fourth year. Currently, in

2015, there are 20 employees in

this company and every single

one of them have their own

role and responsibility.

2011 Michael completed the bungalow successfully, which

brought him a lot of awards both locally and

internationally. He was listed in the top 30 architects

under 40 years old. This sets his company's foundation

and its first impression to the world.

2012-2013 On the third year, the commercialism has increased and

he has not been receiving any awards for that year

although their income is increasing. They company started

to lose features on magazines.

2014 CH&I company went back to construct and design

bungalows instead of high-rise building.

2015 Fortunately, CH&I company received an international project which is a project

at Sri Lanka and currently working on it.

CH&I is an award-winning

company, they’ve won a lot of

awards and features

on magazine. Their long term

goal is to be recognized

internationally and win

international awards.

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