Fennel

The Fennel is a residential development comprising of four 43-storey towers sitting upon a 5 storey landscape parking lot podium. It is located amidst the suburban sprawl of Sentul, 5km north of Kuala Lumpur City Centre of Malaysia. It is developed by YTL LAND under the leadership of Dato Yeoh Seok Kian – Mastermind, Risk-taker and Visionary. The Fennel is the 2nd iteration of a meandering free-form apartment called the Capers at the adjoining property. They are a collection of mix-used land-parcels developed within the larger Sentul Masterplan. Together with the Capers, the vision was to create a new designed urban environment to stimulate urban revival and to provide about 1000 units of mid-cost housing in Sentul. Conceived as part of larger masterplan of buildings, bridges, parks gardens and railroad corridors, the Fennel is the high rise counterpoint (in form and in usage) to a series of adjacent low-rise office and commercial blocks. The Fennel rises up with a strong sculptural and rational gesture. Units cantilever out 500mm at each floor to sculpt the slanted profile tower, to the point when the “building knows when to turn back” as gravity looms and common sense prevails. Landscape bridges/sky terraces anchor when the tower expands at its widest. These sky terraces let air, light into the naturally ventilated entrances corridors to the units, moreover it frames views out within its cavernous space. Orchestrating views towards Batu caves (the region’s tourist attraction of limestone cave temples) to the north and the Pertronas Twin Towers (until recently the world’s tallest buildings) to the south. The sky terrace support a combination of greenery, water feature, function rooms and gyms. These amenities extend down to the podium roof which houses childcare centres, playgrounds and two 50m long swimming pools. Both tower and podium secure a vital role as microcosm of a larger mature urban context. The 50m pool stretches across the main arrival court. Serving as grand porte-cochere around a V-shape column that supports the pool. Materials like aluminium panelling and steel edge-detailing are deployed as a leitmotif to express a fresh aesthetic to the prevailing multicolour and plaster and paint Sentul experience. Details of metallic fins and edges are also incorporated to preserve proportions and geometry of the design.