Shop Mall Starhill Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Spark Architects

© Lin Ho

Architects: Spark Architects
Location: Kuala Lumpur Malaysia
Architect In Charge: Stephan Pimbley
Project Architect: Michael Gibert
Team: Kim-Lee Tan, Sevena Lee, Wenhui Lim
Lightning Designer: Snfor Sdn Bhd
Structural Consultant: RFR Shanghai
Area: 2,000 sqm
Year: 2011
Photographs: Lin Ho

© Lin Ho

Starhill Gallery is perhaps Kuala Lumpur’s most iconic shopping mall, featuring an extraordinary array of luxury shops and fine dining restaurants. Spark’s design proposal dealt with the reinvention of the existing façade of Starhill Gallery facing Bukit Bintang. This reinvention of Starhill Gallery is designed by Stephen Pimbley, founding director of Spark and the architect behind Singapore’s hugely popular Clarke Quay.

© Lin Ho

Stephen says, “Unlike many street-facing malls in Kuala Lumpur, our new façade for Starhill Gallery is firmly engaged with the public realm and generates valuable visual connections along this section of Bukit Bintang via the heavy footfall. We have designed a beacon for Starhill Gallery that celebrates its relationship with the city.”

© Lin Ho

Spark’s design has opened up the façade which provides a lot of visual interest via a continuous shop front that wraps the existing building in a crystalline skin of glass and stone panels. The new façade resembles the “wet drapery” of the ancient statues of Greece and Rome, and the beautifully crafted gowns on sale inside Starhill Gallery. The fractured variation of solidity and transparency transforms the street façade of the existing building entirely, giving it a new contemporary classic identity that stands out amongst the quick-fix, ubiquitous shopping mall façades of many of Starhill Gallery’s neighbours.

© Lin Ho

Spark’s lightweight steel, stone and glass façade is the first of their kind in Malaysia that embraces cutting-edge façade technology from the French engineer RFR, the team that delivered the Pyramid at the Paris Louvre.

First Floor Plan

Spark replaced the café at the entrance of Starhill Gallery with an iconic triple height shopping pavilion for the French luxury retailer LVMH and their cosmetics brand Sephora. Sephora is, in turn, connected to Starhill via a first floor bridge that pierces the new crystalline façade.
Spark, together with YTL, has deliberately crafted a complex building envelope using only the best materials that resonate with the importance of the building’s position and contribution to the streetscape of Kuala Lumpur. The synergy with high quality of the brands/products, as well as special visitor experience inside Starhill Gallery is undeniable.
Starhill Gallery’s new crystalline façade and the Sephora pavilion have effectively established an iconic new identity for Starhill Gallery, affirming its position as the foremost destination for luxury shopping in Southeast Asia.

First Floor Plan

Second Floor Plan

Elevation

Penang Global City Center, Malaysia

Penang, Malaysia

Photo courtesy Asymptote Architecture
Sited on Penang Hill, the Penang Global City Center (PGCC), a key component of the 256 acre development site that was formally the Penang Turf Club, is an expansive, sustainable, mixed-use development with two iconic sixty-story towers.
The design is centered on the idea of creating a new and powerful image for the city of Penang and the new initiatives associated with the development of the Northern Corridor of Malaysia.

The complex includes two iconic, sixty-story towers housing luxury residential units and five-star hotels, the Penang Performing Arts Center (PenPAC), a high-end retail and entertainment complex, an observatory, a world-class convention center and a vast public arena in the form of a plinth that serves as an entrance to the PGCC and connects it to the city beyond.


Photo courtesy Asymptote Architecture
The design of the iconic towers in particular draws inspiration from not only the lushness and drama of the surrounding mountains and seascapes, but also from
the rich and diverse cultural heritage that makes up the Malaysian nation and Penang in particular.

The forms of the two towers are comprised of both horizontal and vertical elements. Sculpted horizontal components move across the plinth, rise up and transform into articulated vertical structures.

Photo courtesy Asymptote Architecture
The vast, cascading plinth, which functions as a public plaza with multiple gathering spaces, are venues for the performing arts center, convention center and various facilities for residential, office and urban life.

Photo courtesy Asymptote Architecture

Photo courtesy Asymptote Architecture
Set against the backdrop of the nature reserve of Penang Hill, the twisting, glass facades of the towers "perform" various surface effects - reflecting, refracting and distorting views of Penang, the surrounding landscape and the seascape beyond.


Photo courtesy Asymptote Architecture
The design incorporates the latest in sustainable design and engineering technologies.


Drawing courtesy Asymptote ArchitectureSite Plan

Drawing courtesy Asymptote Architecture

Facts about Penang Global City Center

Total Area:

1.000.000 m2

Retail Complex:

400,000 m2

Convention Center:

100,000 m2

Performing Arts Center (PenPAC):

75,000 m2

Condominiums:

70,000 m2

Hotel and Service Apartments:

50,000 m2

Offices:
25,000 m2

Observatory:

1,500 m2

Parking:

190,000 m2

Developer:
Abad Naluri, a subsidiary of Equine Capital

Architects:

Asymptote Architecture

Master Plan:

Atelier Seraji