KL Sentral Towers

Location: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Client: Capitaland

Date: TBC Completion

Area: 140,000 m2

Budget: Undisclosed

FOA Partner in Charge: Alejandro Zaera-Polo

Project Architect: Mio Sato

Design Team: Daniel Spreier, Sukyeong Kim, Takeru Sato

Plot D of KL Sentral sits on a new urban centre and major transit hub in Malaysia. This residential complex is located on the easternmost corner of the site, occupying an exclusive section of the KL skyline. By exploiting the opportunities of the site, we tried to provide residential accommodation of the highest possible quality in Southeast Asia.

The residential complex is formed of two 50-storey towers, designed in a contemporary style but grounded in the tropical traditions. A variety of residential units ranging from small pied-à-terres to 4-bed loft apartments are clustered around a tropical-style garden. Each unit has generous ceiling height, high levels of glazing to maximise views and premium fittings. The complex also provides luxury features like a sky club with breathtaking views, an Olympic-size pool with underwater music and a spa, as well as facilities including a creche and convenience store.

Because of their equatorial location, the buildings are placed with a predominant dimension along the East-west axis to prevent from solar overheating, The buildings sit along the Northern edge of the site, producing a public space between the towers and the Jalan Stesen Central. As well as the reduced solar exposure due to the building’s orientation, environmental performance is further enhanced through covering the facades with sun-shading canopies, a derivation from traditional Malaysian architecture. The sun-shaders have been designed by cataloguing the solar conditions in the different rooms of each unit and adjusting them to suit these specific conditions. This produces differentiated shading across the facade and gives the appearance of the façade as a differentiated folding plane.

The characteristic image of the façade as a rippled surface has been generated by a single material treatment acting in different ways – sometimes as a water-tight envelope, sometimes as a parapet to the terraces and sometimes as a shading canopy. Furthermore, by corrugating the façade, we were able to provide maximum natural ventilation, improved daylight conditions and increased façade ratios. The resulting wrinkled appearance forms the primary feature of the building’s aesthetics.