Architectural digest
The bold and beautiful buildings of Kuala Lumpur.
Kuala Lumpur has come a long way since its founding on a swamp in the 1850s. Today its skyscrapers give it soaring cachet and the futuristic look of steel and glass.
It’s striking to think that a 40-metre clock tower, constructed in 1897, once dominated the skyline. But look up as you walk the Malaysian capital and you’ll see that Kuala Lumpur’s architecture has always been bold, borne of a fantastical collaboration of diverse cultures.
The clock tower tops the colonial-era Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Built in pink and terracotta brickwork, with a jumble of spiralling staircases, arches and copper domes, it looks more like a Moorish pleasure palace than a government ministry. It marks the heart of the original city, which bears the imprint of colonial British architecture.
Across the square, the Royal Selangor Club is a sedate affair in black-and-white, mock-Tudor style; cricket is still played on the green on Sunday afternoons.
British architects of the day were much taken by Moghul architecture from India.
Along the river, another fabled Kuala Lumpur landmark also sports minarets, cupolas and quaint pavilions that give it the look of a maharaja’s summer retreat. In fact, it’s Kuala Lumpur Railway Station, which train-mad travel writer Paul Theroux described as the grandest station in Southeast Asia.
Another building by British public-works architect Arthur Bennison Hubback is Jamek Mosque, standing where the Klang and Gombak rivers converge. Built in 1907, its delicate minarets and spires also evoke Moghul design; delicate in pink brick and contrasting white cupolas.
Following Malaysia’s independence in 1957, architects sought to express its newfound national identity by looking to Islamic tradition. The 1965 National Mosque is a fine example.
It has a magnificent, low-lying blue-green roof pleated like a half-folded fan. Inside, marble floors, reflecting pool and splashing fountains create a peaceful oasis amid the city’s bustle. Its Grand Hall is supported by 18 pillars supporting a dome and 18-point star, representing the 13 Malaysian states and five pillars of Islam. White latticework brings to mind Arabic calligraphy.
Islamic architecture was also the inspiration in 1984 for both the Tabung Haji Building, noted for its unique hourglass shape, and Dayabumi Building. This skyscraper arguably remains the city’s most elegant, with its white exterior walls sculpted into Islamicinspired geometrical designs.
By the 1990s, architects were also looking to Malay culture for inspiration. The National Library resembles a traditional Malay headdress, while the National Theatre has sweeping buffalo-horn roofs.
Both were soon utterly eclipsed by the Petronas Towers, however. When the 88-storey, 452-metre towers opened in 1998 they became, for a time, the world’s tallest buildings and announced Malaysia’s arrival on the world economic stage.
Resolutely contemporary, the design of geometric patterns nonetheless incorporates Islamic elements. The bridge that links the two buildings has a viewing platform from which visitors can gaze down on the sprawl of the Malaysian capital and marvel.