This is Kenanga, close up, the view towards the f/b area where most of the public will come into contact with the building. We hope the immaculately detailed blockwork facade can also be experienced from within the project, casting elaborate shadows and light into what would be over 1 million sqft of unique wholesale retail development with elevated car park for over 2000 in the final phase.

This project is interesting for its unusual and most historic location, famously known for many many years as a place where all of the main textile merchants of Kuala Lumpur would come to trade their wares, but also for its most unusual scale, a structure that is almost virtually 23 stories tall, over 1 million square feet of gross area, for which at least half are retail lots. Almost everything traded in these stores are textile based products, jewellery stores and small items catering for the local fashion entrepreneurs. Similar centres exists elsewhere in the region, but this would be Kuala Lumpur's first.

Kenanga Wholesale City is also a building which is to be constructed from natural materials, and fair faced concrete. On most al of the facades, the 400x200mm blocks are arranged in a facade that is left exposed apart from a coat of paint to keep the face clean and without blemish. This very natural approach will be used throughout the entire building including also the interiors which will comprise natural steel framed courts and bridges in the upper floors. The only finished parts relate to circulation elements, as escalators and lifts and some of the very generous skylights and glass canopies. These are finished in great contrast to the more rustic and gutsy materials used for the walls and floors.

The building is easily very iconic. It has a facade design that is completely extraordinary because of the scale for which blockwork is used to line the elevations of at least two of the facades, in some respects they appear as skin or indeed fabric for this enormous building. The glazed and openable window elements of the facade has been made more attractive by arranging them the most irregular graphic fashion. The 5 levels of elevated car park is accessed through a series of very long concrete ramps, these are lit brightly through the sides of open faced naturally ventilated blockwork. Further up, the Kenanga Wholesale City building are three levels of accommodation surrounding a courtyard. These retail units are meant for recreational, food and exhibition purposes. With the vast amounts of daylight on these levels, and with potential to attract retailers worldwide, this building may indeed become the new Wholesale centre for the region, given its very prime location and its proximity to the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. ©2007.zlgdesign


2 comments:

  1. works on foundation will commence in late may 2008.

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  2. Anonymous1:06 AM

    kenanga will eventually become one of the key building centre for showcasing all forms of fashion and textile goods from the region, its scale is so bog it is bound to attract the attention of many retailers.

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