Ceylonz Suites

The imminent paradigm shift in the working environment today introduces a blurred line between work and life. With the rise of highly accessible digital technology, where convenience is no longer a luxury but a necessity, people are yearning for autonomy in the workplace. In fact, work is less of a place than it is a form of activity. Malaysia is no exception as it has also jumped on the bandwagon of ‘agile working’, particularly appealing to the Generation Y. With virtually everything at our fingertips, flexibility has become a growing trend in the way we work. Work is ever increasingly demanding and requires us to be on-the-go, while we want our own definition of time and place for work. Working from home means the nine-to-five norm and time wasted for commute are of a bygone era. Enter Ceylonz Suites, a 39-storey office tower standing out in the metropolitan cityscape of Kuala Lumpur with a refreshing take on redefining work, life and play. The building takes on a point-block configuration with 442 studio-sized units (384 - 578 sqft), the space of which can be modeled into microapartments or co-working spaces, suiting to the owner’s needs. Despite the compact design due to the limited 0.23 hectare land, the block packs ample lifestyle amenities such as the Sky Gym, Rooftop Infinity Pool, Sport Lounge, as well as work-centric facilities like conference and meeting rooms, Business Lounge, etc. The building incorporates ‘play’ by designing the massing playfully, akin to the Jenga blocks. The prominent elevation of the building has volumes extracted at interval levels, leaving negative volumes of space that open up and transformed into Pocket Gardens. Instead of ‘plug and play’, this approach translates into ‘pluck and play’, i.e. plucking portions out and leaving the voids as ‘play’ spaces. These ‘play pockets’ are carved out to seamlessly integrate with the curtain walls as negative elements of the facade collectively. Every Pocket Garden is designed with its own character, each offering a unique ‘play’ space to quench the younger generation’s excitement for variety and novelty. To add to its idiosyncratic design, each Pocket Garden also frames the magnificent view of the Kuala Lumpur cityscape at different altitudes, which resonates with the youth’s ethos for personalization and individuality. Like cogs in a machine, the programmes are integrated synergically among the three elements - work, live and play. The three programmes can occur regardless of time and space, subject to the user’s choice and needs. Because work is becoming less of a formal activity, its unconstrained flexibility allows it to interlace with the element of ‘play’. Part and parcel, the minimalistic approach is taken in the design in terms of space, form and facade. The building uses materials sporting a ‘raw concrete’ look, complemented with ventilation blocks and timber toned screens which promotes natural ventilation while shielding the spaces from the perennially harsh tropical sun.