INTRO
The site is located at one of the main entrance to Pasir Gudang Industrial Park, a vast industrial estate in Johor, Malaysia. The brief called for a new corporate office building to serve the factories at site & to be the icon to the company’s global image in stainless steel products.
MINIMUM INTERVENTION MAXIMUM EFFECT
The design negotiates the realm between industrial utilitarian need and the quest of statement making. It challenges the typical symmetrical cathedral-like office front which normally oddly attached to the
utilitarian factory structure at the rear. This office block greets the main access road diagonally via north-west corner. The geometry of the north-west feature façade derived from the idea to have minimal intervention to the periphery of the already optimised floor plates. This glazed feature corner is heavily shaded by metal fins.
MACHINE IN MOTION
The building shape resembles a gigantic machine which visually looks like ‘running’ the factory at the back. The lower slanting glass of the feature corner gives the building the ‘ready-to-move’ effect. The asymmetrical form is further defined by the cascading window lines. The contrasting glazing design between the feature corner and the general façade add momentum to the non-static effect.
MATERIALS, STRUCTURE & CONSTRUCTION
Metal & glass finishes used to express the various stainless steel products produced by the company
THE WIND-SHADE CURTAIN WALL
The shaded glass strip openings at stair well capture direct wind. The glass wall creates stair silhouette at the side elevation. Windows have been created at stair well top to induce stack effect at the stair well.
THE ANTI-GLARE SUN SHADING
The lowered down window sun- shading panel reduces upper sky glare at seating level and reflects the sunlight to the ceiling. The Low-E glass used reduces the heat gain.
PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE & IMPACT
Contextually, the building’s futuristic sophistication stands well on the bare horizon at the site which only dotting with the low & expansive industrial structure. It manage to achieve a non-box shape architecture without compromising much of the optimum use of office floor space.