menara mesiniaga

Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak

Structure Innovations

Menara Mesiniaga

Ken Yeang

The Menara Mesiniaga is theheadquarters for IBM in Subang Jaya nearKuala Lumpur. It was first conceived of in1989 and finally completed in 1992. IBMasked the office of T.R. Hamzah & Yeang fora building which was a high-tech corpo-rate showcase for their highly visible site andhigh-technology industry. Also, Ken Yeangdesigned this building as an example of hisbioclimatic skyscraper practices and prin-ciples.

The building is an environmentalfilter, an analogy for synthesis and analysis.The Menara Mesiniaga is a built work thatutilizes a basis of traditional Malaysian build-ing models and their transition or evolutioninto modern principles. It is Yeang’s vision ofthe tropical garden city and it uncovers “therelationship of buildings, landscape andclimate . . .” transforming the impact of high-rise development in the ecosystem of a city.

Technical DataHeight - 63 metersFloors (over ground) - 14Floors (under ground) - 1Year started - 1989Year completed - 1992Gross Floor Area - 6503 m sq

Function and UseThe building is equipped with 6-

classrooms, a demo center, a 130-seat au-ditorium, lounge, cafeteria, and prayerrooms. The building boasts an excellentaudiovisual system, complete lightingequipment, administrative and cateringservices and a large entry foyer for prod-uct display and demonstration. It is wiredfor communications within itself and withits technology partners.

They boast a “commitment tocreating a facility that would be sensitiveto and in harmony with the local environ-ment, as well as one that reflected thecompany’s aspirations to be an industryleader.

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Site and Climate

View of Interior Lobby

View of Entry (from ground level)

Menara Mesiniaga is located ona major highway from the airport to KualaLumpur. It is in a highly visible locationwith few buildings within the surroundingcontext.

Subang Jaya is near Kuala Lumpurin Malaysia. The climate is considered tropi-cal. The year round temperature, heat andhumidity are fairly similar throughout theyear. The day and night temperature varylittle.

Artifical landscape was createdto shelter and insulate the lowest three lev-els from the morning sun. Parking is locatedbelow the building and berm.

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Main Ideas and Concepts for the MenaraMesiniaga:

- Sky gardens that serve as villages - Spiraling vertical landscape - Recessed and shaded windows on the East and West - Curtain wall glazing on the North and South - Single core service on hot side - East - Naturally ventilated and sunlit toilets, stair ways and lift lobbies - Spiral balconies on the exterior walls with full height sliding doors to interior offices

The building is 15 stories tall andcircular in plan. Yeang designed this build-ing to include three items: 1- a sloping land-scape base to connect the land with theverticality of the building; 2- a circular spi-raling body with landscaped sky courts thatallow visual relief for office workers as well asproviding continuity of spaces connectingthe land through the building; and 3- theupper floor provides a swimming pool andgym.

mezzanine level

first floor

second floor

eighth floor

ninth floor

tenth floorseventh floor

fourth floor

Sun Shaders (yellow) / Garden Spaces (green)

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Shading Devices

The facade is a “sieve-like” filter(instead of a “sealed skin”). The louvers andshades relate to the orientation of the build-ing. They allow or reduce solar gain. Thedeep garden insets allow full height curtainwalls on the north and south sides- as aresponse to the tropical overhead sun path.The core functions are located on the “hot”side, the east.

Sun Shaders Garden Insets

In Rethinking the Skyscraper, byRobert Powell, critic Charles Jencks dis-cusses “a new synthesis for contemporaryarchitecture that is responsive to the cli-mate of a particular place and finds in-spiration for a new architecture languagefrom forces that are ultimately cosmic.”(48)

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Garden TerracesNear Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Latitude 3 10 NLongitude 101 42 E

August 27 11 am

August 27 Noon

August 27 3:30pm

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


January 21 11am

January 21 Noon

January 21 3:30pm

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Garden SpiralSun ShadersSun Screens

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Axon of Typical Floor Level Section Showing Core and Sloped Landscape

Tall buildings are exposed to thefull extent of heat, weather and tempera-tures. The overall building orientation hasan important bearing on energy conserva-tion. In the tropics, North and South facedopening reduce the need for insulation.Deep recesses may provide shade on thebuilding’s hot sides. Large multistory transi-tional spaces serve as in-between zonesand allow air flow. External walls should bepermeable with adjustable openings, “fil-ter-like.” Walls can provide solar andweather protection, as well as provide forcross ventilation. Yeang explains that theplan should reflect the patterns of life anculture of the place. Plantings should travelvertically to generate oxygen and help coolthe building. Passive solar shading is gener-ally located on the east and west sides inthe tropics. Cross ventilation should let freshair into the buildings even in air conditionedspaces.

Yeang: An ecological building should notbe a weapon in a retreating battle. Onthe contary, it can contribute postively tothe environmnet. A green area is a pro-ductive area. So the building can geerateenergy instead of consume it.

Yeang Concept Sketch - Garden Spiral

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Architecture 471

Brad Burns

Structural Technology in Architecure: Sendai Mediathque

Construction / Details

“The most powerful effects on the form ofthe building are from the sky-courts andthe sun-shaded roof and its facilities,together with the separated cores that intheir edge condition boh shield the towerand are naturally ventilated.” (30)

The roof is inhabitable. As partof Yeang’s fundamental idea of con-necting the building back to land - theroof holds a pool and a gym. The roofacts as the capping social space of thebuilding as well as an additional bufferbetween interior and exterior spaces.

The sun screen structure ismade of steel and holds aluminium pan-els. The structure is capable of holdingsolar panels (if ever installed). The screenshades the pool as well as the roof ofthe building. The rain water collectionsystem is also on the roof.

The roof is not problem free.Because of the high-humidity, the insu-lation has deteriorated and there hasbeen some leakage. Elsewhere in thebuilding some rusting has occurred.Yeang has since stressed an importanceon material life-cycle costing.

The main structure of MenaraMesiniaga is exposed steel tubes. The floorplates are concrete over steel trusses. Thecore functions are located on the “hot” oreast side. The elevator lobbies and lava-tories which are not air conditioned andare on the east side to buffer the climate-controlled offices from the sun. The mainoffice spaces are naturally ventilated andair conditioned. The building is equippedwith a Building Automated System whichcontrols energy features including air con-ditioning and is utilized to reduce energyconsumption in equipment. Other passivelow energy features include: all windowson the east and west have aluminium lou-vers to reduce solar gain; and the northand south windows have the deep insetsacting as a thermal buffer. The shaft is al-ternately indented by garden terraces andfitted with brise-soleil on the east and west- that saves $13590 in air conditioning peryear.

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Yeang was born in Malaysia andeducated in England. He received hisPHDs in Psychology and Biology. His thesisresearch centered on environmental biol-ogy and ecology as well as their interac-tion with built forms. Additionally, his workcentered on energy use and performancewithin the tropical climate. His goal was toachieve the sustainable standard of hu-man well-being/comfort which echoes thenative Malaysian tradition of building. Inhis 1985 essay, “The Tropical City - Ideasand Visions, ” ideas of bioclimatic designof the city and its systems emerged.

Ideas include:- An urban environment integrated withand by its landscape- An aesthetic model - the image of luxuri-ant tropical urban garden- An open way of life - community - allmade possible by the tropical climate

Yeang wanted to overcome thetypical high-rise heat-island effect by cre-ating positive design responses to windand shade as well as introducing verticallandscaping, the use of heat-sink claddingand the reduction of air conditioning use.Yeang considers passive low-energy effi-ciency, an improved social environment,and the use of abundant ambient energyessential to design.

Yeang’s design principles involve“holistic considersation, of the sustainableuse of energy and materials over the life-cycle of a building “system”, from source ofmaterials to their inevitable disposal and/or subsequent recycling.” (Rethinking 72)

Additionally, Yeang incorporatestransitional spaces from exteriors to interi-ors, the principles of identity and regional-ism (building in context of its place-reflect-ing the cultural and climatic influences)and extensions of the land and garden.

Yeang’s principles of design include: - Responding in plan and form to theclimate - Responding to the landscaping by intro-ducing planting upwards and diagonallyacross the face of the built forms - Breaking surfaces from the straight planeto planes in context for the site - Linkages to the ground and surroundingbase - Responding to the Modern Movement

Yeang’s Architectural Theory

‘The emergent regionalist architec-ture’, he writes, ‘ seeks its architecturalsignificance through relating its builtconfiguration, aesthetics, organizationand technical assembly and materialsto a certain place and time.’ This is avital connection that links technologywith culture. Indeed, there areseveral connections:

Firstly, a direct connection whichinvolves the creative adaptation forcontemporary uses of an existingrange of built forms; secondly, anindirect (abstract) connection,through the interpretation into form,by design, of the general principlederived from an analysis of architec-tural heritage and cultural traditions;thirdly, an inclusive contemporaryconnection in design through theselective use of current technology,forms and ideas; fourthly, a landscapeconnection that integrates thebuilding with the physical contextand natural history, and, fifthly, andperhaps most importantly, a forwardconnection in which design consider-ations include an anticipation of thelikely consequences of the building(Rethinking 35).

Sunscreen/Shading device fit like ‘loose-clothing’ onthe structure of the tower.

New Taichhung Civic Center (1995) continuous publiclandscape, the buildings are raised above the ground, al-lowing circulation beneath them, designed for the sun,wind and light in Taiwan.

Signature Tower, Business and Advanced TechnologyCentre (1998), vertical building program (above)hierarchy of parking (right).

IBM Plaza - Kuala Lumpur, escalating planter-boxes,diagonally across the face of the building, traverseacross the floor in the mid-level and then ascend theother face to the uppermost floor.

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Architecture 489

Erica Leigh Walczak


Works Cited

Arcidi, Philip. “Menara Mesiniaga Tower.” Progressive Archtitecture. v. 74, March 1993: 108-110.Powell, Robert. Rethinking the Skyscraper: The Complete Architecture of Ken Yeang. New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1999.Richards, Ivor. “Tropic Tower.” Architectural Review. v. 192, February 1993: 26-31.Yeang, Ken. The Skyscraper: Bioclimatically Considered. Malaysia: Academy Group Ltd. 1996.

Websites:www.skyscrapers.com (Menara Mesiniaga)www.mesiniaga.comwww.smartarch.nl (Ken Yeang / Menara Mesiniaga)www.ellipsis.com (projects-Menara Mesiniaga)www.archnet.org

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menara mesiniaga

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