KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — After sitting in the shadows of KLCC for nearly two decades now, Wisma Central just might get a major upgrade if a group of group of architecture students and professionals have their way.
In an “academic experiment” in collaboration with urban rejuvenation group Think City and the Architecture Association (AA) of London’s Visiting School Programme, 18 architecture students, graduates and professionals spent nearly two weeks rethinking how to revitalise the 40-year-old building.
The team — which included students from Taylor’s University, UiTM, Liverpool University and RMIT University in Australia — developed and presented ideas from various perspectives, proposing improvements ranging from Wisma Central’s design to the physical structure such elevating the entrance and changing the perception of space in the building.
Think City’s executive director Hamdan Abdul Majeed said they decided to look at how they can give Wisma Central a facelift as a “new urban challenge”, after having carried out several similar projects in Penang.
“This is about pushing the boundaries for innovation, to think about what you can do but using very sharp advance technical tools and capabilities in identifying what the solutions can be,” he said.
Director of AA’s semester programme and Penang Visiting School, Naiara Vegara said they are always on the lookout for unique spaces with a distinct character and study how they can give it a facelift.
“We are doing research in an academic environment where we want to rethink real problems in real context because we believe that these research can be used to inspire,” she said.
Ridwa Ahmad Fathan, the director at an architecture firm citylabProjects which is based in the Wisma Central, said the project was very timely as they are waiting for a grant to rejuvenate the building.
“Whether some of these ideas being developed are implementable for Wisma Central, there is an ongoing grant application which everybody is anticipating very soon, there are big plans for attracting new user types to come to Wisma Central to make it more of a hub for the youth to get inspired and to become a startup hub for new companies,” he said.
