Ikmal Hashim Albakri Studied 1960-1961

Ikmal Hashim Albakri was born in 1930, in Kampung Pisang, Batu Gajah, Malaysia, his father being a senior civil servant in the British administered Malayan Civil Service. After a peripatetic childhood, due to the nature of his father’s work, Albakri attended the Malay College, in Kuala Kangsar, before entering the Public Works Department (PWD) at Ipoh. He subsequently won a Perak State grant to study architecture abroad and in 1951 travelled to the UK, enrolling in the five-year architecture course at the University of Sheffield (1951-56). Following graduation, he worked for a year at the Architect’s Department of Sheffield City Council, prior to returning to Malaysia in August 1957, two weeks before Merdeka (Malaysian independence). A condition of his grant had been that he return to work for the PWD and Albakri duly resumed his duties at the Kuala Lumpur branch, working on military administrative buildings from 1957-58. He was then brought in to form a team for the design of the National Mosque in Kuala Lumpur, working on the iconic designs from 1959-60. At this point Albakri was awarded a scholarship under the Colombo Plan to attend the 1960-61 postgraduate course run by the Architectural Association’s (AA) Department of Tropical Studies, in London. Enrolled in the same year at the AA was his PWD colleague, Abdul Razik Hitam, who had also worked with him on the National Mosque team. After completing the course successfully, Albakri returned to Malaysia once more and in 1964 established the Kuala Lumpur branch of Kumpulan Arkitek Sdn. Bhd. Now revered as one of the major figures of the Malaysian architectural scene in the post-war decades, Albakri’s most significant works include the Putra World Trade Center (1986), the National Library of Malaysia (1993), the Bank Bumiputra HQ and the Mutiara Beach Hotel, in Penang. Albakri also worked tirelessly to develop the architectural profession within Malaysia and served as the 1st President of the Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (1967-69), President of the Commonwealth Architects Association (1987-89) and President of the International Union of Architects (1999). He was awarded the Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia Gold Medal in 1992.

Sources

• Architectural Association Student Register, 1960-61. AA Archives.
• Architectural Association Membership Register, 1979. AA Archives.
• Lai Chee Kien, Ang Chee Chiong, 'The Merdeka Interviews: Architects, Engineers and Artists of Malaysia's Independence', Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia, 2018.