4 November 2020 – A group of two students from School of Design, Universiti Teknologi Brunei (UTB) were awarded for their conceptual ideas in designing the new UTB Library Cafe, called Bakers & Books.
UTB and Mr Baker’s Bakeshop collaborated by inviting students from the university to take part in the Conceptual Design competition for a café located at the UTB Library.
In attendance at the prize presentation ceremony was Professor Dr. Dayang Hajah Zohrah binti Hj Sulaiman, Vice-Chancellor of UTB.
Present to award the prize was Mr. Eric Pui Jeng Soon, Founder of Mr Baker’s Bakeshop. The ceremony took place at the Conference Room of the University.
The two students from Architecture programme area who won the competition were Dayang Zayanah binti Zainal Abidin and Awang Mohd Ariffin bin Morsidi.
With the mind to enable staff and students to dine-in over a good book with coffee and cakes in a space surrounded by greenery, these aspiring future architects took part in challenging their creativity and showcase their design that were incorporated with digital innovation.
The Conceptual Design competition was launched on 17 August until 19 September 2020. Numerous entries from various Schools and faculty participated in the competition. The design was selected according to space usage, user friendliness, functional and emotional aspects of the project according to Mr Baker’s given theme and concept. The selected design will be used for the final cafe design for the Library Cafe at UTB which expected to be opened to public by January 2021.
Mentoring programme will also be offered to the students in the form of internship where they will be taught the basic barista skills, customer service, inventory monitoring, food preparation and more. Mr. Baker’s Bakeshop will also be working hand in hand with students from Food & Science Technology programme area, School of Applied Science & Mathematics (SASM) for new products research and development as part of their courses. The products successfully developed by the students will be given the option to make said products available for purchase at the cafe.
Mr. Baker’s Bakeshop and UTB recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 22 June 2020 to develop academic and research collaborative efforts in equipping students with professional and industrial skills in multidisciplinary areas.
