As the year draws to a close, award-winning property development firm RJ Realty Sdn Bhd has added another accolade to their trophy case, clinching the prestigious International Innovation Awards (IIA) for Outstanding Product.
The innovation summit and awards ceremony was hosted at the newly opened MGM Cotai in Macau, China. The International Innovation Awards is a highly coveted recognition program for outstanding innovations worldwide.
Hosted by Enterprise Asia, the region’s front-runner in entrepreneurial development, award entries were judged by stringent criteria and rigorous judging parameters that assessed both the company’s track record and product according to the InnoMark certification standards.
Hundreds of submissions were received this year from over 30 different countries. Past winners of the award include Microsoft, Intel and Adidas.
“Innovation requires some degree of creativity, but innovation is not creativity. More than anything else, innovation is about execution. No idea can work in a silo. As such, in determining the recipients of the International Innovation Awards, the judges took into consideration such criteria as innovation distinction, practicality and performance, commercial viability, replicability and measurability, and institutional support. The goal is to put substance ahead of form; execution ahead of ideation”, said Ryonna.
Ryonna Chuo, Creative Director of RJ Realty Sdn Bhd received the award on behalf of the company. Beaming with in joy with her trophy, she said, “It’s a huge honour to win this award and showcase to the world that our Kuching-based firm is more than capable of going toe to toe against international firms.
“My personal goal, from a young child, has always been to place both RJ Realty and Kuching on the world stage and I’m very blessed to have been able to achieve this in the early stages of my career.”
Chuo, 26, currently oversees the creative direction of the development projects at RJ Realty.
After spending nearly a decade abroad in Singapore and Los Angeles, she decided it was time to return to Kuching to make her mark and contribute to the city’s development scene.
“When you fall in love with something, you can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened and what excatly it was about. that made you feel the way you did,” Chuo mused.
“I’d like to bring about an awareness to the beauty of architecture and its essentials in property development, because developers have the power to truly change a city’s skyline. The caveat is that the change cannot be mindless – it’s important that a city’s architecture is reflective of its local culture.
“If we are forever copying without soul instead of innovating, our architecture scene will forever be stagnant. We can’t multiply mindlessly.”
“The Government is taking steps in the right direction to elevate the architecture scene. However, this has to be a consolidated push,” Chuo emphasised.
Elaborating on RJ Realty’s direction, Chuo said, “Each one of our properties are uniquely designed with great care to have a distinct character. For example, in d’Ryx Residences, we’ve taken the conventional idea of what a condominium should be and inverted it to elevate the residents’ lifestyle.
“Instead of enclosed corridors, we’ve made sure that natural ventilation is excellent and that the units have a high level of privacy, with one elevator servicing each unit.”
“We heavily consider the phenomenological aspect of inhabiting a space and to make sure that each property that is built enriches the community in all aspects,” Chuo asserted.
