Back on the Lego brick road
CHUAH BEE KIM
2009/12/08
Adults who thought their Lego days were long behind them find themselves playing with the colourful bricks once again. This time round, however, they have to draw on their skills as engineers to build giant models for Legoland Malaysia, writes CHUAH BEE KIM
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| Legoland Malaysia is being built at a cost of to the tune of RM700 million. .Gambar Zulkarnain Ahmad Tajuddin...for JStreets centrespread jp715h. ZULKARNAIN AHMAD TAJUDDIN— Pictures by Zulkarnain Ahmad Tajuddin |
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| The six model builders received their training in a 10-week programme at Legoland California. |
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| (From left) State Tourism and Domestic Trade Committee chairman Hoo Seong Chang, Menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman, Iskandar Investment Bhd president and chief executive officer Arlida Ariff and (2nd from right) and Legoland Development general manager John Ussher at the groundbreaking of Legoland Malaysia. |
KHAIRUNNADIA Kamarudin played with the colourful interlocking plastic bricks when she was about 6 or 7 years old.
She soon exchanged them for Barbie and Polly Pocket Dolls.
Now all grown up at the age of 23, and armed with a bachelor's degree in industrial design from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, she finds herself playing with the same bricks of her childhood.
Khairunnadia is set to be a model builder at Legoland Malaysia, which is expected to open in April 2012.
The second of four siblings, Khairunnadia has worked as a mechanical engineering trainee and mechanical engineer.
"I never imagined that I could land myself such an interesting profession. The job will allow me to hone my research development and design skills," said Khairunnadia, who was one of the six participants in a 10-week programme to train to become a model builder in Legoland California.
Aged between 23 and 34, they are the first batch of trainees to complete the programme.
They will be building some of the 15,000 models that will make up Legoland Malaysia in Nusajaya, Johor.
Like Khairunnadia, Lee Khai Yuen, 34, said he was also not that interested in Lego bricks as a children.
But, he is happy to be working as a model builder in Legoland Malaysia, the first Legoland theme park in Asia.
Lee graduated from National Cheng Kung University in Tainan, Taiwan, in 1998. He has a bachelor of science degree with a major in industrial design.
Lee has worked as a professional will writer, financial adviser with an insurance company and part-time lecturer at Southern College's School of Art and Design, where he taught industrial design.
"We all enjoyed our training in the United States. We were trained in the techniques for building models using Lego pieces. The most challenging was building a ball.
"Once one can build a ball with the bricks, building other shapes is easy," Lee said.
There will be more than 40 interactive rides, shows and attractions, designed for families with children aged between 2 and 12, at Legoland Malaysia .
Spread over 26ha in Medini North, the theme park is being built at a cost of RM700 million.
It has already created 44,500 jobs and is expected to create an additional 4,000 job opportunities.
The project, which is a joint venture between Iskandar Investment Bhd and Merlin Entertainments, is set to transform Iskandar Malaysia into a sustainable, thriving urban centre and tourism destination over the next 25 years.
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