Centre for the Environment, Kuala Lumpur Part 2 Project 1999 Scott Cosgrove Newcastle University | UK Centre for the Environment, Kuala LumpurThe Centre for the Environment aims to stimulate a global consciousness within Asia while encouraging people to think and act at a local level. It is proposed to become a point of focus in the debate about environmental issues and challenges, which face us all, not only in Malaysia but the world as a whole. As such it provides an insight into the emerging ideas, values and technologies which will shape our future and that of generations to come. Above all it provides a bridge between thinking about the environment and doing something to put those thoughts into practical effort. 'RELATIONSHIP THAT MAN HAS WITH THE WORLD'The objectives of the development will promote education within Kuala Lumpur. The proposal aims to demonstrate man's contact with nature and provide visitor's with a program about environmental issues in the natural context of nature's surroundings. It will provide a contrast to a city that has rapidly developed into a polluted urban jungle at the expense of the environment. Its sited location within the city will also protect the site from further currently proposed retail development and maintain the preservation of the adjacent forest reserve. The building will also act as a headquarters for proposed research outposts to be sited around the Malaysian province.Scott CosgroveUniversity of Newcastle-upon-Tyne TUTOR'S STATEMENTScott CosgroveScott's project embodies the principles that the Newcastle School upholds.Scott set himself a very special problem, one which required great research and invention. He achieved both of these at the highest level.Scott initiated the programme following strong research into Kuala Lumpur and the environmental issues which South East Asia faces. He established detailed social, environmental and built form objectives which led to his programme. At all stages, he set himeself the highest objectives and never retreated from the challenge which the School set of proving the project by detailed realisation through built form.The School expects students to develop an intellectual position based upon research and to then develop design concepts which allow the architectural position to be explored and challenged. It is only through the exploration of materiality and the making of buildings that concepts are proved. Scott's project addresses all these challenges at the highest level, addressing with bold confidence the immense challege that the School's agenda set. He has been innovative at all stages, creating a design in which his goals and ambitions are explicit, a unique architectural statement proven at all levels.