This community centre provides spaces under a large continuous folding roof for events, performances, shops and play. Completed in February 2019, this 1,300 square metre building will act as a local gathering place for chance encounters, leisure and community engagements for those who live in and around the neighbourhood. Called the Buzz.ar, the project was commissioned by a local developer who requested for a ‘place-making’ intervention that will form part of the new mass housing and commercial quarter that it is developing in Kota Kemuning, a township about 20 kilometres to the southwest of Kuala Lumpur.

The new structure sits on a flat site with its rear facing a series of ‘display’ homes to the south and its front positioned towards north to an open green field and a lake. The orientation is such that activities can spill out onto the field and lake with ease. Incidentally, the building’s position is most conducive for passive solar design, where direct sunlight is least intense facing north and south in this part of the world, keeping spaces cool and comfortable.

Flexibility is one of the most significant design criteria. Allowing a building to be used continuously through various future programmes throughout its life is seen as part of the sustainability agenda. To accomplish this goal, the Buzz.ar offers indeterminate spaces with quiet detailing that invite different patterns of occupations and use. The layout is simply organised with small clusters of enclosed volumes arranged around wide terraces. There is no main entrance to this building, visitors can approach it from all directions, even from the footpaths along the lake across the field. This porosity in the design layout promotes an open and flexible architecture that creates visual and spatial connections with its surroundings at all sides. The openness of the layout also facilitates natural ventilation by allowing cool breeze to flow throughout the building.

Project Completion: 2019

Project Credits:
Client: Gamudaland Berhad
Architect: Eleena Jamil Architect
Contractor: VLEE Renovation & Construction Sdn Bhd
Civil & Structural Engineer: GCU Consultant Sdn Bhd
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: PAC & Rakan-rakan Sdn Bhd
Quantity Surveyor: Baharuddin Ali & Low Sdn Bhd
Landscape Architect: PTA Design Sdn Bhd
Landscape Contractor: Megah Landscape Sdn Bhd
Photographer: Pixelaw