EPIC stands for Extraordinary People Impacting Communities. Our mission is to inspire, mobilise & empower individuals to live extraordinary lives dedicated to creating positive impact around them.

EPIC Homes is Epic’s flagship initiative that aims to build relationships through the act of building homes, bridging the gap between the urban and rural divide by mobilising trained volunteers to build homes with marginalised communities.

EPIC Homes is focused on providing homes for underprivileged Malaysians – we are currently working with Malaysia’s indigenous population. EPIC’s methodology focuses on a cross-sectoral and inclusive approach, where volunteers and targeted communities lead and organise projects (builds) together.

The projects bring together the public and private sector and government to form an ecosystem that supports one another.

With this collective effort, we are able to facilitate the power of choice, restore dignity and self-belief of the underprivileged and privileged communities so that they believe in their own talent & capacity to make a difference within their own lives and the lives of others.

EPIC Homes began as a small one-off project building a toilet and painting houses in an Orang Asli village in 2010. After viewing a man’s home on the verge of collapse the team (John-Son Oei, Loh Jon Ming, Jayne Kennedy, Jasmine Ng) was shocked to learn that he had been living in such unsafe housing for over two years.

Building a home seemed like an simple solution, but they also knew they wanted the community to be part of the process in creating long-term sustainability, and they wanted to build relationships with this community to understand their challenges on a deeper level. Inspired by Lego and Ikea furniture, the team looked for help from others to enable the community to build together.

Prima Avenue became the first sponsor by volunteering their services, providing architects, engineers and contractors. In October 2010 this idea became reality when the first home was built for ‘Pak Cihong’.

Since then we have built over 150+ homes and empowered over 6000+ volunteers.

To empower people to provide these homes, we have designed a unique experience that equips ordinary people with the skills and technology needed to build a home in as little as three days. This system is modular, which allows for flexibility in terms of size and environment. The reason why for this modular system is to suit various geo-location that we build in and the family sizes.

EPIC has established a unique volunteer program to allow designers, architects and engineers to contribute strategically to the evolution of the EPIC Homes design. The design are approved by authorized engineers

The homes EPIC builds are unique prefabricated, modular designs that allow us to build homes that suit the target family. Our modular designs are a result of input from around 30 architects and engineers over 2012.

All structural works are designed according to the latest edition of the following relevant Standard & Code of Practice:

British Codes of Practice
BS5950:2000 – Structural Use of Steelwork in Building
BS8110:1997 – Structural Use of Concrete
BS6399:1996 – Loading of Buildings
BS5268:1 – Structural Use of Timber

The home is also certified and endorsed by a Professional Civil Engineer in accordance with sound engineering practice in the country.

After the EPIC Home is built by volunteers, we work with TNB to connect them to the grid and hire electricians to outfit the home with electricity and light fixtures.

The home is generally 2 sizes, the 4 module at 440 sqft and the 6 module at 660 sqft. The weight capacity of the entire structure would be 150kg/m2. This translates to the 4-module being able to support 6131 kg and the 6-module being able to support a mass of 9197 kg.

As of August 2022, we have built more than 175 houses in 8 villages in Selangor, Perak as well as in Kelantan territories.

Over 12 years since EPIC Homes established, EPIC Homes has received funds from various sources as follows:

Public donation – EPIC Homes has received funds from public’s good will via crowdfunding, direct donation, etc.

Corporate funding – We raise funds through crowdfunding and private corporations that want to sponsor homes as part of their corporate social responsibility or team building activity. We have worked with companies such as Maxis, Prudence Foundation, General Electric Inc (Malaysia), Tetrapak, Zurich Malaysia, PEMANDU (the Prime Minister’s Department for Performance Management & Delivery), the Ministry of Youth & Sports Malaysia, the Ministry of Women, Children and Community Development, ARUP, Gamuda, Energizer, Real Estate & Housing Developer’s Association amongst others.

Grants – We have also received grants from various organisations

Our homes comprises of various materials such as timber planks, fibre cement wall panels, polyaluminium or fiber cement roof sheets, concrete and steel footings, prefabricated beams and columns.

We work in affiliation with JAKOA – Jabatan Kemajuan Orang Asli. Known as the Department of Orang Asli Development, is the Malaysian government agency entrusted to oversee the affairs of the Orang Asli. Their main objectives are to eradicate poverty among the Orang Asli, improving their health, promoting education, and improving their general livelihood. We also work with both formal and informal authorities of the villages we liaise with.

The process begins with EPIC being invited to meet a community. EPIC also trains volunteers (Pathfinders) to conduct research and obtain data in the village.

The inception stage with the community starts with getting to know each other, and agreeing on a shared goal. The community then work in partnership with external experts to organise among themselves for the rest of the project stages (preparing the land, obtaining permission, installing the foundation, maintenance, etc).

The community is facilitated to coordinate and determine their own criteria for housing assessment and working methods, and in turn establish a priority list. EPIC then verifies this information with the village.

For example, they would look at the structural integrity of their current home, conduciveness of the environment and/or prioritisation of children and the elderly.

With the above criteria, we would then come out with a Priority List, confirmed by the community. We would then work together with the sponsors in providing in respect to that list.

Home-owners are partially engaged in the design process, determining select components based on family needs and preferences. They are also involved in preparing the build site and prior build coordination and communication.

Additionally, the homeowner must be willing to participate in our Pay-It-Forward Programme where he/she must build his/her own home and 2 more homes for future homeowners. This also helps curb the handout mentality as homeowners must pay “sweat equity”. This provides them ownership and instils pride and dignity within their family.

EPIC Homes is mindful of the impact our homes have on the environment. EPIC Homes aims to minimise our impact on the environment and we are constantly working with individuals in relevant industries that advise us on making EPIC Homes environmentally sustainable.