Project Summary
This scheme offers itself as an ethical response to the emerging ‘urban phenomena’ in Kuala Lumpur. The Cultural Center development strategy is centred on a Mosque. The mosque design is free from traditional Islamic architectural clichés. As an Islamic beacon and a form of national imagery, a Mosque development can reflect local taste and the desire to recognize the diversity of the Malaysian ‘global’ community.
Located on a difficult site on the B15 Highway, which divides the districts of Cyberjaya and Putrajaya in the MSC (Multimedia Super Corridor), the bulk of the complex mediates between the highway and the ground plane. Doing so, it encompasses many principles of life, accommodates education and welfare facilities, a residential centre and commercial activity. All are fused within the development as a cultural whole. The juxtaposed programs tests how these spaces are utilised, contained and harvested. New urban methodologies adopted could perhaps be seen as a new way of building a Malaysian cultural monument.
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Jury Comments
At the heart of this design is the proposal for a response to Malaysian culture that “engages with the dichotomous elements of Malaysian life”. A key response is the proposition for a mosque “free from traditional Islamic architectural clichés”. It is an ambitious project, in this light. The site is also conjectural, interweaving with the highway itself. These challenges are admirable, as is the siting, which is laid out as a circular ring of buildings. The ideas are complex, but obfuscated by the unnecessarily complicated graphics. The scheme failed to address the figuration of the new buildings, now rendered mute by the erasure of traditional emblems.
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Alan Kueh
