Project: Theorizing Architecture (Ar. David Hashim)

SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING & DESIGN Centre for Modern Architecture Studies in Southeast Asia (MASSA) Bachelor of Science (Honours) (Architecture) THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISM (ARC2224)

Project: Theorizing Architecture

NAME : EDNER PATRICK STEPHEN ID: 0314623

LECTURER: NOR HAYATI HUSSAIN JUNE 2014

A. INTRODUCTION

ARCHITECT DAVID MIZAN HASHIM 1983- Bachelor of Arts Degree (MIT), 1986- Master in Architecture (Cambridge), Awarded Aga Khan Travel fellowship for research in Islamic Architecture.

Diagram A.A- Portrait of Ar. David Mizan Hashim

As the President and founding Principal of the VERITAS Design Group, architect David Mizan Hashim is no longer a stranger in the architecture industry. His reputation has been established since he has been Principal-in-Charge in many award and competition winning architecture and interior design projects by VERITAS whether it is within Malaysia or overseas. Being brought up to witness the growth of Kuala Lumpur itself, his passion for global adventure, cultural diversity and design has been the engine behind the group that drives out into international expansion and embrace of global identity. Having often being featured in local and international media, David and his projects has been the word of mouth around the world at numerous conferences and forums. He plays an active role in the local and international conversation route on the subjects of design and entrepreneurship therefore making many of his essays being published by the media.

MENARA PRESTIGE KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

Diagram A.B- Perspective of the Menara Prestige from street level.

Menara Prestige is one of VERITAS sophisticated and complex multi-floored office tower. The site itself has a narrow lot of a 1:4 aspect ratio which is located in between the Jalan P. Ramlee and Jalan Pinang road intersection. The office tower consists of 331 stories of commercial office space and a few retail units including serviced cafeteria on the 6th floor as well as a podium car park. The challenge of this project was to establish a memorable visual presence despite having it hemmed in on the southern and eastern side by neighboring high rise apartments and office buildings.

For this project, the essay attempts to convey an understanding of David’s architectural theory through a direct observation and analysis of his buildings. Using architecture as primary text, this project claims that the world of form is not self-assertive however shows an inner rationale that has the ability to pass on importance

B. ANALYSIS I. Phenomenology From the Menara Prestige project, David and his team are challenged with the attempt to design a high rise commercial office space with the client providing a minimal floor area for the project. Based on the site analysis conducted by David’s team members from the importance of the site context, he firstly design the building to response to the site along the road, Jalan P. Ramlee and Jalan Pinang. Since the site ideally located on the intersection of this two roads, it has a strategic location on the road level. Aside from that, it also has a clear borderless view towards the Petronas Twin Towers across a small land reserve. In relation to these elements, David and his team approaches the building design so that it would be able to create a noticeable landmark from two different scales. They do this by designing two visible elevations that is clearly visible from a distance as they progress towards the building itself.

Diagram B.A- Ground floor plan indicating the view of beautiful views of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.

Relating to the theory of ‘Phenomenology’, Architect David strongly guides his design team members that the building should portray a ‘prestigious’ elegance that would relate the tower itself to the city’s skyline. What it means here is that during the process of designing the Menara Prestige, the team should always take account of the site context.

The reason behind this is so that the Menara Prestige would not take away the harmony and the language of the architecture that has already been present at the site itself. In the other hand, the Menara Prestige itself would be able to focus in creating ‘human experience’ that would be formed by the availability of ‘space’ and ‘place’. The rhythm of the city’s built form that creates the skyline is not always determined by the overall physical form of the architecture. The location where Menara Prestige is not all that straightforward as its surroundings, yet comprises of strong elements of the site which have relationship to its material substance, shape, surface, and color, that would together combine to structure nature's domain's character, or climate. From there, David and his team two elevations from a distance in a way that it comes face to face with the scale of the Twin Towers and it closes up as the pedestrian approaches it at street level.

Diagram B.B- Diagram on the Twin Tower’s skyline indicating the ‘Phenomenology’ theory of Menara Prestige.

II. Lynch’s Good City Form During the design stages in building the Menara Prestige, one of the concern of David and his team was the scale of the building height given the small area at the site. This challenges the team to address the pedestrian by creating a balance between the scales of the building with the scale of the human being itself.

Diagram B.C- Sectional Drawings of Menara Prestige indicating the scale.

Human being as we know have different perception on how they engage their five senses. Relating to Kevin Lynch’s Good City Form, David urges his team to address the five elements on the analytical phase of Menara Prestige’s design- Vitality, Sense, Fit, Accessibility and Control. The theory may have refer to the stages in designing an urban city in general however, David believes that it is the architecture design in a singular building that gradually forms the urban city as a whole. As for that, he designed the building that it would create a link between human qualities and the physical types of urban areas and sets importance for a standardizing hypothesis of city structure.

Diagram B.D - on Jalan P. Ramlee the building deals sensitively with the change of levels to create a public walkway with a featured wall that connects with the pedestrian walkway.

III. Urban Open Spaces To be able to maintain the harmony between the urban cities with the life that runs it, the architecture should be able to fill and respond to needs of the human being that dwells in or around it. An urban open spaces are important to city occupants because, if done if it is done right, these spaces not just provides aesthetically satisfying getaways, however additionally improve emotional wellbeing of the city’s inhabitants as well as development the natural backing, social equity and incorporation.

Diagram B.E - Elevation Drawings of Menara Prestige indicating its public open spaces on the ground level.

At the corner of the intersection where the site is located, the building form is curved. Ar. David Hashim and his team designed the form to be this way to address the street corner and this curved form is carried along till the full height of the building. When the team were conducting an exercise on form in relativity to the site context, this approach is appropriate since one can trace this response to the street context whilst looking at the building from afar.

Diagram B.F- The curved geometry of the tower & podium address the corner street intersection.

The shorter facade facing Jalan Pinang is a full height glass curtain wall to capture the views towards the Twin Towers. On the longer elevation, the lines of the window wall envelope draw upwards in a steep hyperbole from the podium up such that tower and podium are read as one continuously volume. This furthers enhances the building’s verticality.

Diagram B.G- Retail areas & feature wall incorporated at street level to engage the street front.

C. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

Ar. David Mizan Hashim was grown up in the city of Kuala Lumpur itself to witness how it develop into the modern city it is now. From there, he also ‘witnessed’ the needs of the people of the city itself which then became his passion as he sees everything around his home develops. His passion runs from the love on how the development would actually help people not just in the aspect of the state’s or country’s economic or political growth but to the aspect on where it enhances the quality of the people’s life.

Graduating in Arts and Architecture, David skills and knowledge on both combined proofs that designing can be fun especially by helping people by doing it. That passion grow even further as he carries it throughout his entire life during his career.

As we relate the profile of Ar. David Mizan Hashim with one of his projects, Menara Prestige, it is concluded that this aspect to design for human needs is in fact one of main importance in architecture. This aspect goes above form or function as it is the people who actually becomes the backbone that supports the overall purpose of why the building was built at the first place. Therefore, the design theory of ‘Humanology’ or the science of understanding human nature is what he applies in every single architecture projects that he conducted. ‘Humanology’ comprehends the feelings accomplished by all people and why people react contrastingly to them. We comprehend why individuals have diverse word related and recreational hobbies, why we change in our sexual inclination, why what we think fortifies or debilitates the safe framework, and the mystery to holding a young appearance.

D. REFERENCES

- Veritas Design Group. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.veritas.com.my/#/home/ - ‘My personal DNA is my inspiration’ - The Hindu. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-propertyplus/my-personal-dna-ismy-inspiration/article3728935.ece - David Mizan Hashim: Blueprints for a green future | Green Prospects Asia – Connecting Sustainable Businesses. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.greenprospectsasia.com/content/david-mizan-hashim-blueprints-greenfuture - David Hashim. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.hbp.usm.my/archistaff/pemeriksa/david_hashim.htm - Menara Prestige (formerly Glomac Tower). (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.klccoffice.com/index.php?go=properties&id=43&location=1 - KLCC Serviced Office | Virtual Office Menara Prestige | Nomad Offices. (n.d.).

Retrieved from http://thenomadoffices.com/location/menara-prestige/ - Menara Prestige, KLCC. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.propwall.my/klcc/menara_prestige - Phenomenology (architecture) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.).

Retrieved June 23, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phenomenology_(architecture) - Good City Form | The MIT Press. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/good-city-form.

- Retrieved from http://www.cpas-egypt.com/pdf/Abd_ElBaser/M.SC/003.pdf - Urban open space - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. (n.d.). Retrieved June 23, 2014, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_open_space