MENARA LEMBAGA GETAH MALAYSIA - MRB TOWER - episode 1

In this post, I’d like to feature one of my Architecture school projects which I did during my year 2. It was the semester when we set our design study to reach out for the sky; we were studying about High-rise and Skyscrapers.

We were given the chance to choose our own client. Then, we got to create our own design brief according to the clients’ needs.

To tell you the truth, in order to create a real life brief one needs to spend an awful lot of time in bureaucracy and make appointments and go through a lot of procedures before one could actually sit down and formulate a real design brief.

I had no luxury of time because I was already shouldering a huge responsibility as a father to my two sons but I knew this should never be used as an excuse. So to ensure that I still work within the time constraint, I decided to choose a client that I could easily have good access of information. I chose Malaysia Rubber Board as my client simply because my father is one of the government officers who work for the Board. My father provided me information based on his years of service in the board which was a tremendous access for me to get first hand information straight to the core of understanding the need of a “client”.

Malaysia Rubber Board in fact has a headquarter office, known as Menara Getah Asli which currently stands right across from the infamous Petronas twin towers. So this brief was formulated based on the possibility of expanding the board in the future.

The project for this semester might be seen as just a “dream”, however the process of making this dream had already made it a reality.

BOARD 1

2 x A0 saiz Presentation Board

This design approach is dedicated to develop a new building for Malaysia Rubber Board (LGM) that had contributed lots of new technological advances in the rubber industry in Malaysia for the past 75 years.

The new building reflects the corporate image of LGM as one of the government
bodies besides the Petronas which keeps Malaysia on the edge with other developed countries.

Everything that makes a giant tree comes from the seed. All that is needed for the growth of a seed is a little bit of sunshine, water & minerals. The same applies to the rubber industry, the seed is the most vital element in developing it.

LGM is very synonym to rubber as the main function of the board is to seek for new technology in the rubber industry. This could be easily seen from the LGM logo itself, where a rubber seed is proudly portrayed on it. Again, this shows the importance of rubber seed in the industry. These are some of the reasons why the rubber seed is used for the main concept to unleash the corporate image of LGM. The floor plan of this building takes the shape of the rubber seed which is safely protected with an outer layer that looks somewhat like a shell. If one has the chance to analyst the nature of rubber seed one will find that there is an empty space in the centre of it. And this empty space provides good air circulation for the seed to grow.

The nature of the rubber seed is directly applied to the whole building, in order to create good ventilation and gathering space on the constrained office. This will create a double layered surface for the building. Both layers are connected to one another by a corridor which allows the occupants to experience a wider view of the outside world.

A tower sitting on the ground becomes the landmark of the overall LGM district, and it also functions as the services centre. This is to avoid the services from cramming up the building if it is put together with the office area.

Once the shape of the floor plan is extruded to construct the skyscraper, it looks like a fully grown rubber tree. The building is substantially defined by the decisions to raise the shape of rubber seed on inclined columns above the hollow centre. The inclined columns allow the number of piles to be reduced and also give this otherwise building a more dynamic appearance to the outside world. Additionally, in lifting it out of the ground, gives it the dignity and authority which that site, at the entrance to the office, needs. A further bonus is improved air flow across the site.

The construction of the LGM building does not interfere the existing trees around it as these trees are well preserved by the inclined columns. The columns provide a shady canopy walk which allows passersby to go through the 'forest'. The existence of the canopy walk creates a shortcut to the KLCC Tower and a clear pedestrian walkway.

As a child who had grown up in the rubber growth environment, it is a pride to see the LGM (MENARA GETAH ASLI) new building standing tall with the other great skyscrapers as prestigious as KLCC Twin Tower and The Asscot Hotel.

1. The first massing follows the building height of the WISMA ROHAS PERKASA as a limit for the proposed tower.It creates a continuous building plane along Jalan P.RamleeHowever, it does not respond to the height of THE ASCOTT APARTMENTS.This 21-level height massing fails to give an inclined climax to the lot angle, but it only give a monotonous picture of the continous building plane on Jalan P. Ramlee. For the continous builing plane on Jalan Pinang, itsmassing causes sudden declined climax towards the existing skyline.

Notes: Unfortunately, some of the information of this project is still kept by my former lecturers and several bits of information were left at my home back in Malaysia. To be continue...



MRB TOWER by Fadzlan Rizan Johani is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 Malaysia License.