Challengepark
zlgdesign
architecture at its core
Lee bungalow
kenanga
1/11/2010
This project sits five minutes from times square, and has access from Jalan kenanga, and the KTM railway and is surrounded by residential and mixed commercial property, largely and most famously known for many years as a place where all of the main textile merchants of Kuala Lumpur would come to trade their wares. The kenanga wholesale city centre is also one of the largest retail development of it's kind and probably the first, and at this most unusual scale, it is easily a structure that is over 20 stories tall, with total of over 1 million square feet of gross area, including 7 stories of open and naturally ventilated car parks. All of the other floors are retail lots, totally more than 300 lots whose sizes range from 300 sqft to 2000 sqft. Almost everything traded in these stores are textile based products, jewellery stores and small items catering for the local fashion entrepreneurs. Similar centres exist elsewhere in the region, but this would certainly be Kuala Lumpur’s first and most unique. It will also have facilities to address public needs and wants as boutiques and fashion stores. Unlike other wholesale centers, KWC will also have fashion outlets, food and beverage outlets and ample services as vendor services and valet parking and public amenity. With regards public space the 15th floor serves as a courtyard and open plaza with capacity of over 50,000 sqft of retail space and exhibition floor to cater to fashion shows and public events. Kenanga Wholesale City is also a building which was designed to be constructed from natural materials, and fair faced concrete, which now has been enhanced by the substitution of pre-cast GRC panels. On the external walls, these panels have been left largely exposed and naturally finished, apart from a consequential coat of paint ordered by the authorities to keep the face finishes clean and without blemish. This approach to use only the most naturally available finish and sources of materials has been used throughout the entire building including also the interiors. On level 15 for example, where the much anticipated open space is, there are three levels of retail floors with exposed leaning concrete and bridges and walkways which are finished in galvanized steel. The structural members and frames of the generous skylights and glass canopies are similarly finished in natural galvanized steel and powder coated aluminum to give a more finished look to contrast the concrete and wall elements that support them. The built form of kenanga is very iconic, and it has a grc facade design that is completely extraordinary because of the scale. The design comprises many perforations and openings for ventilation, read as skin or envelope. It is translucent in a way like fabric itself, and indeed has light emitting features similar to a mesh wall. This building has seven levels of elevated car parks which are accessed through a series of interlocking concrete ramps, these are lit brightly through the sides of open faced naturally ventilated panels made of precast GRC. Further up we find another three levels of accommodation; firstly additional retail units that are meant for recreational, food and beverage and exhibition purposes. These upper levels have vast amounts of daylight received from a very large skylight opening measuring 20,000 sq feet. With this there is pleasant naturally ventilated floors and amazing views, and with potential to attract retailers worldwide. This building is fast becoming a new destination for tourists, and should be the centre for the region, given its very prime location and its close proximity to the city centre of Kuala Lumpur.
This project sits five minutes from times square, and has access from Jalan kenanga, and the KTM railway and is surrounded by residential and mixed commercial property, largely and most famously known for many years as a place where all of the main textile merchants of Kuala Lumpur would come to trade their wares. The kenanga wholesale city centre is also one of the largest retail development of it's kind and probably the first, and at this most unusual scale, it is easily a structure that is over 20 stories tall, with total of over 1 million square feet of gross area, including 7 stories of open and naturally ventilated car parks. All of the other floors are retail lots, totally more than 300 lots whose sizes range from 300 sqft to 2000 sqft. Almost everything traded in these stores are textile based products, jewellery stores and small items catering for the local fashion entrepreneurs. Similar centres exist elsewhere in the region, but this would certainly be Kuala Lumpur’s first and most unique. It will also have facilities to address public needs and wants as boutiques and fashion stores. Unlike other wholesale centers, KWC will also have fashion outlets, food and beverage outlets and ample services as vendor services and valet parking and public amenity. With regards public space the 15th floor serves as a courtyard and open plaza with capacity of over 50,000 sqft of retail space and exhibition floor to cater to fashion shows and public events. Kenanga Wholesale City is also a building which was designed to be constructed from natural materials, and fair faced concrete, which now has been enhanced by the substitution of pre-cast GRC panels. On the external walls, these panels have been left largely exposed and naturally finished, apart from a consequential coat of paint ordered by the authorities to keep the face finishes clean and without blemish. This approach to use only the most naturally available finish and sources of materials has been used throughout the entire building including also the interiors. On level 15 for example, where the much anticipated open space is, there are three levels of retail floors with exposed leaning concrete and bridges and walkways which are finished in galvanized steel. The structural members and frames of the generous skylights and glass canopies are similarly finished in natural galvanized steel and powder coated aluminum to give a more finished look to contrast the concrete and wall elements that support them. The built form of kenanga is very iconic, and it has a grc facade design that is completely extraordinary because of the scale. The design comprises many perforations and openings for ventilation, read as skin or envelope. It is translucent in a way like fabric itself, and indeed has light emitting features similar to a mesh wall. This building has seven levels of elevated car parks which are accessed through a series of interlocking concrete ramps, these are lit brightly through the sides of open faced naturally ventilated panels made of precast GRC. Further up we find another three levels of accommodation; firstly additional retail units that are meant for recreational, food and beverage and exhibition purposes. These upper levels have vast amounts of daylight received from a very large skylight opening measuring 20,000 sq feet. With this there is pleasant naturally ventilated floors and amazing views, and with potential to attract retailers worldwide. This building is fast becoming a new destination for tourists, and should be the centre for the region, given its very prime location and its close proximity to the city centre of Kuala Lumpur.
Onyx
Point92
ONYX: only new experience mall and offices
Onyx is situated along Jalan P ramlee and leading to the klcc twin towers. This development will stand 38 stories tall and with a basement of 6 floors it should easily become another major spot for shopping amongst kuala Lumpur's main retail destinations other than klcc itself, at least certainly in this CBD vicinity. In fact no other shopping mall comes closer to the KLCC other than avenueK (another much older project by zlgdesign). Onyx is black, shiny and sophisticated and stark, simple, aesthetically challenging and prismatic in shape and reflective. Onyx has a rooftop pool, exudes class and exclusivity because of it's location, design and programme. Yet we have been very careful to address the younger generation, their needs and the key to its success depends very much in then mix and program. No less and no more.
www.zlgdesign.com
"Give all that you have and you will receive more than you need"- lord ravi shankar
point 92 facade regeneration
We are now seeing then final fixes of then facade, white cement concrete and low E glass specifications have been agreed with the client. Total window to wall ration slightly reduced from 55 to 42 percent. A marked new direction is the use if green concrete for the base structures including all of the ramps and driveway structures below ground.
www.zlgdesign.com
"Give all that you have and you will receive more than you need"- lord ravi shankar
a demographic strategy for masterplan
In Vietnam today we have progress at such rates as the mobility issue cannot be properly addressed in time before execution. Not only are their roads of such proportions that cannot be properly enjoyed by urbanites, much has been lost and compromised by the slow death and disappearance in terms of public realm initiated by more sustainable modes of transport as the good old fashioned bicycles and mopeds and the scooters. China has felt and seen a different but more amenable resolution, they have wider corridors for such modes, they are sensitive to their natural tendencies, even in public spaces. Their thoroughfares are accompanied with parcels of open space with generously planted parks and riverine escapades and sidewalks and promenades. Nowadays we find many master plans flooded and impeded by urban elements which expound useless roads and highways that are servants to forced economies, these are demands of overcrowded cities and parcels of land made to deliver unnecessary densities. This aggravation is starkly visible across many recent proposals, most marked are those seeking to deliver dream homes and corporate offices without realization the soul is missing.
Sadly the situation with streets cape and urban design elements as lamp posts and street furniture has been no less successful. We see a lot of proposals ignorant of basic fundamental parameters as buffers for trees for instance. The old fashioned ways of integrating retail underneath residential properties would have made our cities much more livable than if we were to implement what is now purported new and modern zoning concepts expounded in designer masterplans that don't work. Then merely demarcate zones for the sake of them instead of examining how we really want to live in cities.
a sustainable development primer
A Sustainable Development Blueprint
A Development Primer for the 21st Century
draft masterplan by huat lim
5th February 2009 ©2009.huatlim
[this text is confidential private intellectual property and cannot be copied or transacted without written permission.]
An Approach
If an organisation is an internationally recognised brand they should quickly embrace a quality system and promote and advocate only green products derived from having adopted a deep and strong commitment to their ecological stance. Their approach for this development must be all encompassing, including the appointment and selection of all employed for this Project and required consultants. To this end enterprise must engage specialist team assigned to undertake such programmes as sustainability developments must signal an equally elaborate and sophisticated approach methodology in their Implementation.
Developers need to take a long view in terms of this development as a product of the highest quality, and their long term plan in terms of manifestation of all their projects, commencing perhaps with this development primer.
Picking the Right Team
As in all projects the manager is fundamental resource. They will be key to the master framework for setting up intelligence for the rest of the team, being the sub-consultants, and also other experts to be employed or engaged for more detailed designs, for instance harnessing wind if anything or recycling ground or brown water. The Project Manager oversees the appointment of necessarily all consultants, but also advises on the overall programme strategy and objective, and makes recommendations to enhance design quality as well as protecting the interest of the organisation, including aesthetics and general artistic direction of the products within the development. All prerequisite Endorsements and Certification of all presribed activities will have been properly managed and guaranteed. Such considerations will give rise to a sound and future proof investment on the part of the Proprietor or Investor, if not for the households and communities benefiting from this development.
Adopting a New Philosophy
Luxury is to be measured in the new terms, i.e. open space is no longer considered wasteful, rather a measure of success, a new paradigm in planning concept. Significantly we are aiming at returning the park concept to neighbourhoods. Open space and high density are certainly mutually beneficial, tall buildings fast becoming a formula for a quality urban design strategy - without question. We need to get developers to adopt high rise buildings, as many as possible, with increased density but with that we emphasize the resultant open space and parkland as key to the scheme. Cash flow benefits to adopting this strategy are obvious, and indeed the reduced footprint or plinth area, another bonus to the development. Efficiency rises, and the site deterioration is brought to minimum we have the beginnings of a new philosophy to the business of delivering development products at the scale that developers wish to embark upon. The second equally important agenda for the project is one of delivering the framework but not the finish products. This is an environmentally sound investment plan for both developer as well as investor. The final definition is held by end user, the masterplan is defined in its final form by actuality and not design.
About Being Green
This development can benefit developers in terms of measurable impacts on the environment from the word go. In business terms it is already very substantial what developments such as this can contribute to one's positioning in the global market. The World Business Council for Sustainable Development will define how such activities and projects can add to the overall management of world resources abut more precisely the communities and households derived from such development. A fundamental change must immediately take place for the business operations side as well as how they wish to be perceived and how they wish the development to work as a marketing tool for their larger vision of being a green company. One of the ways to promote this ideology is to use recyclable materials, and engage only the most sustainable materials in every aspect of construction.
One more good reason why this blueprint or primer makes a big difference is the concept to let nature inform the built work. The built form and the supporting infrastructure of the plan makes borrowing everything from nature essential to best protect our investment. What is to be achieved in a green masterplan is the experience and not the design.
Implementation is Everything
It is extremely important to ascertain from the onset that the mix must have been well investigated and researched to deliver the commercial aims of the Development. Each product within the masterplan must have been well defined, by economists but also Architects and Designers, and then programmed carefully to be delivered to as prescribed in a project schedule [in which other term is known as phased]. Here is actually the crux: The success of the masterplan is simply its execution, more than its concept, reflecting a an exacting calculated form at each phase of the work, delivered to condition the development to achieve a certain density at the right time, and a certain flavour or character at any one given time. This is how it needs to be phased, not against some commercial agenda, although strictly speaking this is also a note-worthy consideration. They are not at all mutually exclusive. Demographic studies and physiological and other socio-ecological maps of the development are tracked and retraced until final stages of the development has been accomplished. This so called Blueprint is time mapped and appraised through a development wide design manual and development guide, serving as a monitoring device throughout all of the implementation phase. We also expect each phase to morph and evolve almost organically and with measured and calculated unpredictability. If the masterplan achieves its target prematurely so much the better. If we exceed its target any given time, whereas the built form or the urban plan has not achieved the final stages of completion as planned, the project would have reached maturity in advance of its due completion, and this would be totally acceptable result. At each phase of the work the project data is fed back into an intelligence programme which decides its final fate, whose form we can expect to differ greatly from the original.
The Next Step
[This part of the paper is left blank on purpose, subject to appointment.]
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sir peter cook lecture is here
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