zlgdesign: kenanga

Showing posts with label kenanga. Show all posts

kenanga taxi stand

The design for the taxi stand at kenanga was not only unusual it did not meet any of the aesthetic criteria set down by the local authority. It took a lot of effort to convince not only the officers at the municipal but our own clients who saw no benefit in designing something different. We must have fought everyone in the team, including the QS, the structural engineer, the main contractor, the end user, the facade department of dbkl, everyone including the road and drainage department of kuala lumpur. There were accusations that zlg were delaying the project, in fact the client battled to rid of this design initially. They even took sides with the authority! What a tiresome exercise this was and how incredibly difficult it is to propose the simplest things sometimes. How we feel it so important that the general public take more learned awareness towards their environment, all of the built forms that surround them in their lives and that they cannot allow antiquity and ancient laws hold meaning back from their reality of good and simple design.

So whatever it is that makes this a sustainable design comparable if not in fact superior to what is in the books ouhgt o be made known to all. Foremost its all concrete, so its not nuclear science, and its also totally maintenance free, there is no skylight (we had it before) or tediously but poorly detailed glass panels anywhere, no rust prone metal balustrades posing corrosion issues, no metal deck roof, no unsightly plastic rainwater downpipes or unnecessary roof gutters and no costly waterproofing membranes to maintain or worry about and ghastly black gaskets or unsightly silicon joints (associated with glazing work) to this design. Surely the authorities can appreciate this approach if what seems to be of their concern is vandalism and poor upkeep or maintenance.

The best part is it costs a fraction of what is already out there, and takes no science to build it. Just a lot of passion and faith.

kenanga: lower ground retail area with f&b outlets

the lower ground floor of the kenanga building has an area filled largely with eateries and f&b outlets and shops which benefits from great access direct from the street. it is filled with daylight and is also endowed with large expanse of vertical planting located on the walls along the front. the street and pedestrian walkways are both visible from this space. whereas the shops on this level similarly looks into the surrounding buildings beyond the street, connected through stairs, escalator ramps and accessible vide a number of lifts located along the front of the building. the space is protected from rain and sun by a large overhang roof. the underside of this is covered with precast glass reinforced concrete panels.

kenanga

The facade started as a grid of openings casted into a series of solid reinforced concrete panels. Each panel is secured mechanically to rc columns and floor slabs and lifted into place and assembled in situ sealed and grouted all round the edges. A total of 1600 panels were assembled in this way for the facade.

kenanga : car park ramp wall detail

the elevated car park in the kenanga wholesale city (KWC) project is on 7 levels above ground and they serve more than 1600 car parking bays. The external facade is a perforated concrete wall made from precast grc and are mechanically fixed to rc columns and steel posts which are prefabricated and fixed between floor slabs. This building is in fact as tall as a 23 storey structure. It was completed within 30 months from concept design to the finished building. It has more than 800,000 sqft of lettable floor and at least 300 lots of retailers. The total GFA is approximately 1 million sq feet.

kenanga lower ground stair detail

this is a detail view of the kenanga lower ground floor access stair detail with f&b lots opening to a terrace with vertical planting to one side. this space is directly accessible from public walkways which are on the ground floor. this is a similar stair detail employed in 2005 for the challenge park climbing centre main staircase, in putrajaya malaysia.

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

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Early study of building mass
©2007.zlgdesign

The Kenanga Wholesale City Centre has been a recent project, an exploration by zlgdesign, principally using natural materials. It will be one single address for wholesalers meeting their requirements, some 300 of them now reside in the back streets of busy Kuala Lumpur. Project is deemed to pull together something like 1200 car parks to sit atop a 7-storey custom designed retail floors, accessible through at least 6 high speed lifts. On the rooftop sits a three-storey courtyard office enjoying a treelined f/b facility with ample space for businesses to engage in exhibitions and promotional events.

The approach roads to this building has had major reviews for a wider reserve, given the extraordinary capacity for the car parks located on the higher floors of this structure. The grand drop off promises to be beautifully landscaped and will have good access for public transport, but also serving to be a pleasant arrival point for pedestrian and visitors to this fashion center.

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willard wigan

"Though my sculptures are quite small, it's important for people to realize that I am life-size. Of course, at times, when I'm working on a piece, I might come to believe that I myself am microscopic. That's how involved in my work I become. My tiny world becomes everything to me.

Let me tell you, it's very difficult. Every movement I make is so small. I have to control my breathing and heartbeat - it's not easy! I usually work at night and have to make sure the dog isn't around.

Be original! Be creative! Be individual and make your mark"

helen keller

In February 1882, when Helen was nineteen months old, she fell ill. To this day the nature of her ailment remains a mystery. It thus became apparent that Helen’s illness had left her both blind and deaf.

Helen’s progress from then on was astonishing. Her ability to learn was far in advance of anything that anybody had seen before in someone without sight or hearing.

When Helen graduated from Radcliffe College in June 1904, she became the first deafblind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree.

In 1913 a series of Helen's political views and writings on socialism called “Out of the Dark” was published, this was to change her public image most immensely.

Anne Sullivan taught Helen the meanings of words and helped her discover the world around her. They may not have been directly responsible for the development of our modern day internet technologies and teaching methods for the blind and deaf and mute but we know however that it was Helen and Anne that have shown us that these disabilities need not be the end of the world, less if we have modern day technologies to overcome them.

martin luther king

"I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn't fit to live."

In 1964 Martin Luther King Jr became the youngest person to receive the Nobel peace prize. His speech, "I have a dream" made him one of the greatest orators in American history. His philosophy of non violent actions to fight racism and discrimination of civil rights did nothing to prevent his assassination on 4th April 1968, he was shot in the cheek in his motel room after he delivered his last known speech, "I've been to the Mountaintop." A crowd of 300,000 attended King's funeral. He was only 39.

winston churchill

Churchill was born with a speech impediment which he consistently worked to overcome, depressive periods he called black dog days. After many years, he finally overcame this hindrance, a remarkable personal achievement. Trainee speech therapists are often shown videotapes of Churchill's mannerisms at the time of his struggles. This diagnosis is confirmed by many authors writing in the 1930s and 1940s, there is even a story about how he was refused a job, the prospective employer suggested he gave up work of any kind. Churchill's impediment may have been cluttering which would fit more with his lack of attention to unimportant details and his very secure ego. Weiss suggests that he may have "excelled because of, rather than in spite of, his cluttering."

barnum brown

Barnum Brown started out his illustrious career as a young man collecting bones almost to his first day at the museum where he met the Director of Paleantology. He inspired researchers and collectors to this day of his tireless field work and methodology. His perseverance saw him on long days of up to a year in the field, eventually leading him to discover the bones of the most feared of dinosaurs, the Tyrannosaurus Rex, this was as early as 1910. Brown was quite a colorful character. During World War I and II, he picked up odd jobs acting as a corporate spy for oil companies, during his many trips abroad. During his time in Canada, Brown was frequently photographed wearing a large fur coat at dig sites, and a hat.

frida kahlo

Kahlo produced only about 200 paintings—primarily still lifes and portraits of herself, family and friends. Haunting, sensual and stunningly original, these uncompromisingly figurative works fused elements of surrealism, fantasy and folklore into powerful narratives. As Janet Landay, curator of exhibitions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and one of the organizers of a 1993 exhibition of Kahlo's work, points out, "Kahlo made personal women's experiences serious subjects for art, but because of their intense emotional content, her paintings transcend gender boundaries. Intimate and powerful, they demand that viewers—men and women—be moved by them."

jackson pollock

No living artist, painter, or painting or form of art has inspired so many generations of expressionist artists, automatic painters and designers as Pollock's 1949 No.8. Jackson invented the Drip Painting technique, now widely copied and imitated but never to evoke the same quality of experience and awe as the original. Pollock's own incredible energy and passion, and his uncontrollable action painting has been one of the modern of many admired styles. Its extraordinary historical impact on the world art market from the 60's to today has brought about aesthetic awareness to very ordinary people and their appreciation of modern art. It is this extraordinary, yet totally accessible form that has continued to inspire me, and I find it not so surprising how Pollock's work has remained utterly modern and relevant to people of all walk of life, to this day

hemingway

At the age of 17 Hemingway published his first literary work. He died aged 61, of self inflicted gun shot wounds. He was the greatest of writers. His book The Old Man and the Sea, written in 1952, sold 5 million copies in a flash, later o win him the Pulitzer Prize the following year. It was after this point that Hemingway found himself spending most of his life in Europe and Africa, wherein some of his best novels were written. it is thought his best book was written at the time he was leaving Cuba, A Moveable Feast, considered to be his most beautifully written prose.

camille claudel

Sculptor, born in La Fère-en-Tardenois, N France, the sister of the poet Paul Claudel. She became the student, model, and mistress of August Rodin, producing works which, while close to his, nonetheless show great individuality. After a fiery relationship, Claudel and Rodin parted company in 1898, but she continued to sculpt and achieved great renown around the beginning of the 20th-c. However, the break with Rodin affected her mental stability, and from 1913 until her death she was confined to various institutions.

charles baudelaire

In December 1868 the third edition of Les Fleurs du mal — volume 1 of the poet's complete works — went on sale in Paris. Along with an introduction by the poet Théophile Gautier, this new edition contained all the poems of the 1861 edition, eleven poems from Les Épaves, plus a few others. (It lacked, however, the six poems censored from the first edition, since these were still illegal to print in France.) This 1868 edition was the only one authorized by Baudelaire's estate until his work fell into the public domain in 1917. However, though Banville and Asselineau certainly meant well in assembling and editing the work, scholars today generally disagree with some of the choices made by the two friends, in particular with several of the poems they chose to include and with the way in which these poems altered the "secret architecture" of the 1861 edition.