In what was an existing abandoned retail lot within an under-occupied Office Building at the fringes of Kajang, Selangor, our office was tasked to create a “uniquely different looking” space for our Client, a Chiropractor, consisting of Consultation Clinics, a Chiropractic Treatment Center, Personal Consultation Room, Discussion Suites, Restroom Facilities, Reception and Waiting Zone as well as a Photo Opportunity Area, all contained within a 270 square meter sized area. These were to be set against a young and contemporary concept backdrop bordering along urban chic and hip hop, reflective of our Client’s eccentric and flamboyant approach to lifestyle, which fuses these into his line of work.
Adding to the challenge, the Site is located at the far end of the Ground Floor within an existing multi-storey Office Building, away from the main location of the Mechanical and Electrical services for tapping off. Our design had to take into account the limitations of sanitary and health provisions in this retail lot and the need to make these available at our Site, together with provisions of ambient comforts such as thermal and lighting optimization, good ventilation and acoustic privacy, all so necessary in a chiropractic treatment centre prioritising patients’ health and wellbeing above all else.
Our design concept was to harmonise the various spaces within the boundaries of the lot into one which flowed and led the patients seeking consultation from one stage of their treatment to the next, without making them feel like being within the confines of a mundane medical clinic, but rather experience the casualness and relaxed atmosphere within this Clinic. On this, we mixed and matched finishes of different textures from rustic and basic to painted finishes and matched various colour tones, inducing a sense of friendliness and warmth, away from the stark formalities one would expect from typical clinics of such kind.
The fixtures and fittings that were chosen were a mixture of playful to downright formal. Multi-colour lighted graphics of the establishment’s logo and themes were installed at strategic places, both to convey the place’s identity and to serve as photo opportunities and conversation pieces. This is carried out to be in tune with the habitual lifestyles and preferences of our societies’ youth of today.
In orientating the spaces and zones, we considered that the Site has good visual and physical exposure, being located at the front façade side of the Office Building. It has a South-West orientation on this side and is clad with a full-height glass wall of up to 3.6 meters. There is ample daylight flowing into the Clinic through this façade and it has full street view exposure throughout day and night. Capitalising on these site provisions, we created access to the Clinic right offrom the front pavement here and located brightly coloured graphics as well as logos along this front to promote the Clinic and the services it has to offer. This form of readily seen and available advertisement would serve as a promotion of the Clinic 24 hours a day. The public zones of the Clinic were situated here intentionally in our design for convenience and after-hours operations of the Office Building.
The consultation and treatment zones are located on the inside spaces behind these public zones as we capitalized on the existing back wall to carve out the Consultation Clinics, Chiropractic Treatment Center, Personal Consultation Room, and Discussion Suites, ensuring privacy and saving the erection of additional back wall for these areas. These form the semi-public/private zones and then flow into the private zones of the Clinic.
