Design Anthology - Asia Pacific Edition
All Together Now
Understanding a client's vision for their brand and then expressing it in a physical space can be a tricky business, especially for an entity as familiar as YTL Corporation Berhad. Founded in 1955, the Malaysian conglomerate grew from a small construction firm into a global company with interests spanning utilities, property development, hotels and technology. Located in Kuala Lumpur's ‘golden triangle', YTL's new headquarters is a milestone not just because it finally brings all key departments under one roof, but also because it's a unique opportunity to showcase a unified brand identity in a company with a history of siloed cultures and operations.
To this end, YTL commissioned Singapore-based architecture, interior design and branding firm Ministry of Design (MoD) to design the shared public areas, including the lobby and three upper floors. ‘YTL is made of many business units, each with a slightly different character, so the challenge was finding something common to unify them all,' explains MoD founder and design director, Colin Seah. ‘We distilled YTL's identity into two main traits: heritage and legacy is the bedrock, while innovation and a future-forward stance are built upon that.'
The concept translates to the tangible via a consistent colour and material palette of elegant bronzes, greys and whites in noble materials like marble, oak and granite. This begins from the ground-floor lobby, which features a cathedral-like atrium that soars 25 metres high. To maintain the majesty of the space without losing the human scale, the towering white Bugatsa marble-clad columns were designed with bronze-accented ridges to visually break up the expanse. Seating areas are presented as pavilion niches featuring bronze trims and Mies van der Rohe's iconic Barcelona couches; an ethereal art installation by Japan-based Studio Sawada Design floats above. Highly decorative and matching the prescribed colour palette,