Standing tall among the buildings in South Bangsar, Novum by Eupe Corp Bhd easily stands out with its eye-catching iconic design. Novum marks the Kedah-based Eupe's successful maiden entry into Kuala Lumpur's competitive market. 

A walk around the newly completed devel-opment shows what Eupe can do in designing and constructing a project with a strong and lasting iconic identity, as well as inspiring the property sector to push innovation and creativ-ity in residential development to new heights. 

Group managing director Datuk Beh Huck Lee says: "We wanted to create a project that gives us an identity in terms of what we stand for as a property developer. We wanted to redefine the location with Novum's iconic design and, with the concept of Shared Value - providing buyers with more and better design and facilities - ensure that Novum was not just another building. We worked hard to design every feature and facility so it elevates in every way the lifestyle experience of Novum residents. Home living should be the greatest experience of all and the challenge we set ourselves was how to craft the best possible design for this."

The 3.03-acre Novum comprises 654 units of serviced residence and 75 SoVos (small offices/versatile offices) spread over three towers. Launched in March 2016 at a price range of RM720,000 to RM1.73 million, it has a gross development value of RM575 million. The units have built-ups of 647 to 1,441 sq ft.

The Green Building Index-certfied Novum also aims to encapsulate innovation through its design objective that places a premium on public art, sustainability features and innova-tive landscape design. 

In 2019, Novum was named winner of the Best Condo/Apartment Architectural Design at the annual PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards and the Best Residential High-Rise Development (Future) at the iProperty Devel-opment Excellence Awards (iDEA).

"Novum was designed to represent innova-tion in three distinctive ways - its iconic architectural design, which re-defines the South Bangsar precinct; the latest in innova-tive facilities to cater for every lifestyle; and the latest in connectivity features," Beh says.

"These awards recognise the distinctive-ness of Novum, which in turn reflects our commitment to achieving ground-breaking design excellence."

The core concept behind Novum's archi-tectural design is to build villages in the sky by breaking down the design into smaller blocks oriented at various angles to form clusters of vertical villages. The motif facade and recessed areas are designed to add an eye-catching elegance to the building.

"We are from a small town (Sungai Petani) where space is used differently. There is a stronger sense of community and communal cohesion. We wanted to bring this concept into the city by building villages in the sky, with more communal gardens for residents to gather, just like we do in smaller towns and villages - hence the way Novum's architectur-al form is broken up into smaller precincts. We wanted to masterplan the spirit of commu-nity into the development in a way that creates a new benchmark in urban living," says Beh.

Art, in particular, plays an important role in Eupe's developments and it is something personal to Beh. Datin Michelle Gan, Beh's wife and Eupe's Head of Marketing and Sales, is also an artist. In fact, Gan's works of art are placed in the common areas to inspire and beautify.

"We have infused art throughout the devel-opment through the placement of art sculp-tures curated by well-known local sculptor Nizam Abdullah and other art works in the lobby and common facility floors. Nizam also sculpt-ed the outdoor gym equipment," says Beh.

The outdoor gym - The Red Forest - was designed and sculpted to merge health and fitness with art.

Since the project was launched, Eupe has made even further improvements to Novum to enhance its unique offering. Beh says: "These enhancements are part of Eupe's 'Shared Value' approach, where we take less so we can give our buyers more - more sustainable, value-added design and more innovative features and facilities.

"Novum was completed before the Covid-19 outbreak but our property manage-ment team has taken a number of precaution-ary measures such as frequent sanitation of common areas to ensure that residents are protected from the virus spread."

In terms of facilities, an additional 1,400 sq m of green space was created by replacing the standard tarmac for part of the Bomba fire-appliance access road with Turf Pro. This additional green space will provide more communal space for residents and help cool the building.

"We also have provided a herb garden on the Level 6 facility floor, with a wide range of health-giving plants for the use of residents," says Beh.

Eupe has secured 7-Eleven as the first retail tenant on the ground floor. An additional guard house has been placed at the internal driveway to optimise security through vehicle entry control.

Eupe has also donated 210 unallocated car park bays to Novum's management for additional rental income to help offset maintenance costs of the building. 

Summing up the uniqueness of Eupe's first KL project, Beh says: "Novum has been designed to enable residents to do just about anything from home, be it to entertain, work out, work or relax. This is even more important in a world now being redefined by Covid-19. 

"Everything has been carefully crafted with residents' well-being in mind as well as creat-ing lasting value for buyers - from the public art in the lobbies to Novum's celebrity kitchen and its 50m lap pool that looks directly out to the Kuala Lumpur skyline. All this within what is now recognised as South Bangsar's new architectural landmark." 

Ultimately, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Jimmy Yim, who purchased a unit in Novum, is thrilled with his investment. In fact, even though the original intent was to buy for investment, he ended up staying in Novum after seeing the final product.

"Eupe lived up to its promises - it delivered the property as per the marketing brochure. Novum is strategically situated near the MSC-status office towers in Bangsar South and well equipped with the surrounding infrastructure and amenities, making it a good investment-grade property.

"In terms of the facilities and the design of Novum, I am impressed by the tile pattern of the facade, the tastefully designed lobby of each tower and the celebrity kitchen. Throughout my stay in Novum, I noticed that the developer goes the extra mile in constant-ly enhancing the aesthetics of the facilities floor and maximising the use of space in the common area," says Yim.

He also points out the generous green elements in Novum, which make it stand out from neighbouring developments.

Lawrence Yew, who bought a unit as an investment property, says Novum was designed with investors in mind, as seen in its variety of layouts, reducing competition among property owners in the same building. 

"The facilities are top notch and I can see it continuously being improved to give proper-ty owners a sense of pride. Any defects upon vacant possession were attended to within a short time and I have no complaints about that. Most importantly, with such a well-designed property, I managed to lease it out very quickly at 5.6% rental yield, way above my expecta-tions, especially since we are in the midst of a pandemic. Overall, Novum is a property that reflects the commitment of Eupe to provide buyers with the best," says Yew.

With such high praise, Eupe is ready to scale new heights.