A Responsible Development

YTL Land's Lake Edge development in Puchong, Selangor, has won the award for Best Residential Project (low-rise) in the Malaysia Property Award by FIABCI-Malaysia. By Kenneth Cheong The key to a successful business is to create something that everybody wants out of nothing. In the business of property development, YTL Land in Lake Edge, has transformed a piece of parched land into a thriving oasis. At 80 acres, the Lake Edge Development in Puchong, Selangor, consists of 420 units of luxury terraces and villas. Lake Edge achieved two very important goals as a successful development - creating an upper-class community in a less than desirable neighbourhood and transforming a feature-less landscape into a thriving 'lakeside living' community. As a developer, there is a dire need for convention to be constantly reassessed and challenged. The clean-lines aesthetic of the architecture is a clear trajectory from the traditional pitched roof designs favoured by other property developers in 2004, at the time of Lake Edge’s launching.

Hitting a hot spot, Dato’ Yeoh Seok Kian, Executive Director of YTL Land Explains, ‘insights from our market research showed that our target buyers are for homes that can offer them unconventional lifestyle experiences. They tend to be those from the younger generation who have been exposed to the kind of lifestyles found in the West, and therefore know what to look for and how to appreciate it.'

With 45% of the land devoted to landscaping, Dato’ Yeoh tells us that the landscaping was a very conscious and a major concern at the onset of the project to transform the perception of the site. ‘Our first order of business was to preserve the 12-acre disused mining lake that bordered the 80-acre development. But we faced a huge challenge of making the lake the focal point of the development, as many homeowners found undesirable. To turn around this perception, we transformed the lake into a lifestyle feature (through landscaping and masterplanning) that would influence a different kind of living concept, where the homes, the outdoors and the community come together in a beautiful neighbourhood.

The landscaping was the final touch in completing the development.

Ms. Yap of Praxis Design was enlisted to materialize Dato’ Yeoh’s vision from the inception of the masterplan. In what was a piece of land bordering a disused tin mining lake, is now a lakeside community extensively interwoven with intricate landscaping.

At such a large scale, a framework of key ideas became the basis for more detailed features. The lake itself was developed as a focal point. Swathes of land were designated as green zones and developed into individual feature landscaped parks. The housing lots were planned to line curved streets terminating at cul-de-sacs to achieve a more organic masterplan, a departure from traditional linear row-planning of typical terraces.

In designing the landscaping, Ms Yap sees the green spaces as breezeways. The main parks are extrapolated into a web throughout the development bringing cool air scented by fragrant hedges into each home. This web of green also provides a landscaped vehicular-free pedestrian network to each home, giving the community convenient and direct access to green parks.

The lake, which was restored and gentrified naturally, became a focal point within the masterplan. Man-made water features carried the waterfront theme beyond the constraints of the lake to bring the calming and cooling effects of this central feature to the overall development in snaking water trails along landscape parks.

The finishing touches to the masterplan were the injection of humour and colour by Ms Yap through her details. Playful themed spaces were introduced. Of particular delight are zones for kite launching and sculptural pieces of street furniture, which line the streets.

As a community-driven development, Ms Yap also focused on educationally themed spaces. Enlarged educational write-up displayed in panels in primary colours tell the story of each activity-specific park or space and serve to balance learning and playing.

One of the criteria for this year’s FIABCI awards is to focus on ‘Environmental Impact’. Dato’ Yeoh points out that ‘YTL has been practicing environmental responsibility as a company philosophy for over a decade now, and with that consciousness in mind, lake Edge was designed as a responsible development that would create a sustainable community in harmony with its environment.

As an exercise in successful property development, the heavy investment on peripherals of the development, as landscaping in the case of Lake Edge, has obviously paid off.” ‘…our efforts have indeed paid off from the start when all 192 units of the Courtyard Homes were snapped up within three days of its official launch in 2004. Following launches continued to draw increased interest and demand, driving further the price of Lake Edge homes and its appreciation value,’ says Dato’ Yeoh.

As a property developer, YTL Land has clearly figured out a winning formula in the business of property development.
In addition to being awarded Best Residential Project (low-rise) in Malaysia Property Award 2008 by FIABCI-Malaysia, YTL Land has also picked up the Best Residential Project (high-rise) for The Maple at Sentul West, sweeping all residential awards presented this year.