First week @ Oasis, Ara Damansara

It's been a week long since the internship training started. To me, it's a whole new challenging experience to me. At Oasis, Ara Damansara, i was assigned to a team of engineers that handles the construction of two blocks of office tower. These office towers are 12 storey-high and one of the towers houses a gym or fitness studio on the roof top. It offers a spectacular view of the surrounding Subang and Ara Damansara area.

Along with me, there were a total of 8 trainees that enrolled into Brunsfield internship programme. 7 of the trainees were from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and me, the only candidate from Universiti Tenaga Nasional. I attended a short briefing on the first day of work in Brunsfield Headquarter in Taman Tun Dr Ismail before i move on to report myself at the work site in Ara Damansara.

Mr. Siew was the project director for Oasis Ara Damansara and Mr. Yap being the senior project manager. Oasis Ara Damansara is a joint venture project between Brunsfield and Sime Darby Group of Companies. This project consists of few blocks of office tower and a 13 storey-high service apartment with a water feature landscape in the central part of the community surrounded by two rows of shop houses on each side.

I mainly take charge of phase 7 of Oasis project where i report my duty to Mr. Thiru and Mr. Khairul Anuar. Both of them are site engineer that take responsibility of phase 6 and phase 7.

Along the first week in Oasis, i learned that safety practises is very important in the work site. Besides that, self discipline also plays an important role while carrying out duty at work site. I spend a lot of time reading up the architectural plan of my designated phase and try to get familiarize with the design structure of the buildings.

My daily activities were mainly involved with building inspections and monitoring works. I also handle the task of housekeeping which is the activity of clearing up debris and rubbish around the work site area. In addition, i also learn to do clerical work such as typing out site diary which explains all the activity that had been completed for the day including personnel attendance and data entry regarding the whole phase 7.

One more important issue that i have learned from Oasis project is for the current trend in construction field, they no longer apply the conventional method that uses wood board to do form or casting works.

Casting is defined as the work of pouring concrete cement into a designated structure that will form a part of the required building structures. Nowadays, for Brunsfield, Kumkang Aluminium Form Board is used to do all the form works. I had consulted the engineers at work site and they have explained the advantages on using aluminium board compared to wood. It is faster and economical in the sense that it can be recycle or reuse for several times on casting works. It takes merely one and a half day to complete the whole casting of one floor building by using aluminium form board.