Mewah-Oils Sdn. Bhd.
Mewah Oils Headquarters
Selangor,
Malaysia
Design Concept:
The Mewah Oils Headquarters in Pulau Indah Industrial Park, Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia is for a Singapore-based company involved in the production of palm-oil products and speciality fats. The building comprises of a four-storey office behind a four-storey processing and packing plant, and a three storey (32-meter high) volume automated warehousing space.
The design approach to an otherwise ordinary industrial building is to separate the flexible programme (ie. office administration) from the less flexible spaces (ie. warehouses, processing plant). Hence the massive warehouse forms the backdrop to the extruded form of the office space which is raised over the main drop-off entrance to the building.
The main design feature of the building is a feature continuous-ramped internal garden with an adjoining water feature and a staircase which connects the ground floor to the roof-top terrace. Upon entering the building, this ramped garden is immediately viewed in its grand entirety as a 5-storey high atrium of stepped-planting which is naturally ventilated by celestories that open out to the sky gardens at the roof.
Ecological Design Features
The key feature is this continuous internal vegetated ramp adjoining a cascading watercourse and a large straight staircase, with terraces and a cafeteria below. The thickly-landscaped stair displays a variety of tropical plants that increased the biodiversity of the site (as an ecological strategy), while the gentle flow of water generates a relaxed ambience for both visitors and users of the building. The plants are irrigated by recycled water, gathered from the external rainwater collectors and the sloping atrium space is both passive in its natural ventilation, low energy mode, but is also designed to switch to a mixed-mode system, when required by the indoor climate.
Though the process of passive evaporation, the water-cascade functions as a cooling agent for the atrium space.
Project designed by Ken Yeang prior to joining Llewelyn Davies Yeang
