This city project planned in 1992 was supported by the State Government of Kedah and the Federal Government of Malaysia. The aim was to promote the economic growth of South Kedah, in particular, the district of Kuala Mudah. The city site selected to accommodate this growth lay east of the north–south Expressway and Federal Route 1, and contained many rubber plantations that were no longer viable.
The original master plan prepared by others and called Bandar Mua’adzam Shah was for a target population of 250,000 and an area of some 11,200 acres. Further appraisal of the site and demographics led to this target being reassessed to 360,000 people with another 140,000 located in the region around the new city; thus an anticipated total population of 500,000.
The city was planned to be self–contained with a full range of compatible land uses including: residential, employment, government, tourism, religious, cultural, generous open space networks and recreation spaces. The city was to serve as a model for future urban development by setting high standards in environmental quality, spatial planning and economic development.
It was seen as a significant contribution to the Government’s Vision 2020 and the development of the Indonesian–Malaysian–Thailand Growth Triangle. Much of the city has now been built.
As resident Manager in Kuala Lumpur, I was awarded this commission, and was actively engaged in reworking the initial masterplan design with Sydney colleague Bob Meyer. In those days we were still working manually on a very large drawing board with Bob on one side and me on the other.
When the reworked project was approved in Kuala Lumpur it returned with Bob to Sydney where he guided it through all the number–crunching and detailed development plans, some of which are shown on the accompanying drawings. I remained in Malaysia and coordinated those working on the housing type studies forming part of the final presentation stage.
Unitech QS Consultancy has an interesting article about more recent progress on the Bandar Amanjaya project: https://uqs.com.my/newsite/project-update/bandar-amanjaya-the-golden-triangle-of-the-north/