George Town, 15 March 2019 – Can you imagine that the row of a piano’s treble hammers can be the inspiration for a bookshelf design?

The shape of the treble hammers inspired UOW Malaysia KDU Penang University College student Yeap Wei Ting to design a bookshelf with three rows of pivoting wooden levers which book lovers can flip down to store their books on the shelf. They can be flipped back up when the sticks are not in use.

The idea helped Wei Ting bag the second runner-up prize of RM2000, a certificate and trophy in the Malaysian International Furniture Fair 2019 (MIFF), held from March 8 to 11, 2019.
This year, the theme of the MIFF competition was “The Millennials’ Workspace Furniture”, and participants were required to design any furniture in the workspace that can be integrated with natural elements.

Wei Ting, who is pursuing a Bachelor of Arts in Interior Architecture at UOW Malaysia KDU Penang, designed and created a model of the freestanding bookshelf using plywood and sticks.

“My concept’s name is ‘Treble & Divide’. This bookshelf can save more space and reading area. Wei Ting even added spacious pigeon holes for users to decorate the bookshelf with flower pots and other ornaments.

“I took one month to come up with the freestanding bookshelf model because it needed a lot of time and concentration to design and build the model,” she added.

Wei Ting estimated that the overall process to make a full-size version could take a month or two and projected the material cost at around RM 1300 to RM 1500, not including labour fees.

She also calculated that the shelf should be 1480mm wide, 2700mm tall and have a depth of 280mm to be fit for practical use and be space-saving while being easily moved from one place to another place.

Vanessa Serbastian, the advisor of Treble & Divide concept and a lecturer of the Department of Built Environment, UOW Malaysia KDU Penang, received “Best Mentor Award” in the MIFF competition.

“Design is a solution to a problem. Every design must have a meaning, function and be practical. We always encourage students and push them to participate in various competition which they can able to fly further to grab their opportunity and ambitions,” said Vanessa.

“I believe that Wei Ting could grab the second runner-up prize because she is able to think out of the box and propose inspiring and practical ideas with confidence,” she added.

UOW Malaysia KDU Penang’s student culture of frequently taking part in even global scale competitions overseas have led to a fame which will be augmented by UOW Malaysia KDU Penang’s parent company, Paramount Corporation Berhad, entering into a strategic partnership with University of Wollongong, a public university in Australia. This strategic partnership will be expected to produce more industry-ready graduates, quick thinkers, and pro-active students.