The hilltop location of the Carcosa Seri Negara and Istanu Tetamu is a prominent site, with a broad view over Perdana Lake Gardens and the skyline beyond. Our design for a luxury hotel and accompanying housing works with the site’s topography in order to capitalize on these amenities without overwhelming the scale of the existing mansions. The project aspires to meet the contradictory objectives of mitigating the scale and height required by the developer's brief while capturing distant views and adding what it refers to as “an endearing form to the skyline.”

Our design strategy is considerate of the Kuala Lumpur climate as well as the conservation goals for the heritage property. The grand rooms of the Carcosa house reception and lounge amenities, and a large new terrace offers outdoor connections to hotel rooms and framed views of the gardens and skyline beyond. Indoor connections are provided via a garden level below, where most of the hotel’s large amenity spaces and back-of-hours areas are tucked away from view, before opening up to a large glazed area beside the hillside’s descent. Operable brises-soleil covering the hotel buildings offer partial shading from the harsh sun while allowing guests to open them fully in order to take in the expansive views.

In order to produce a harmonious relationship between the silhouette of the new buildings and the existing heritage structure, we have used the geometry of the Carcosa’s primary roofline as a generative formal origin. By rotating our geometric ‘samples’ of the Carcosa’s roofline off of its primary axis, we are able to produce a family of unique but related forms. As a collective, these forms offer a contemporary reference to the historic architecture of the site, while acquiring an organic and varied character that is consonant with the natural qualities of this lush garden hilltop site.