This design for a law firm is located in the residential neighbourhood Damansara Heights, in the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The project involved the reuse of a partially demolished 40-year-old house that was then expanded by 50% of its original size.
An expanse of brickworks unites the existing and new building sections and provides for an increased thermal mass through large wall protrusions protecting glazing windows from direct sunlight exposures. While the appearance of the building is monolithic from the street front, large glazed surfaces are located at both sides opening up to a series of pocket gardens that allows for ample natural daylight and cross ventilation to the interiors.
Essentially, passive cooling methods have been employed as a core principle to optimise the building’s performance and prevent extensive use of mechanical air conditioning while maintaining optimum comfort.
In addition, trends for the design of law firms are centred on factors such as individuality, connectivity, wellness and flexibility. We worked closely with the senior partners to align our design with the firm’s working culture. If it seems obvious that private offices are a permanent fixture for attorneys for a myriad of reasons, however, right from the start, the notions of collaboration and connectedness also appeared a must-do.
Given the tremendous pressure imposed on attorneys, the more opportunities they are given to leave their desks – to be surrounded by something different (colours/sounds), or even meet in a small room or hang out in a ‘café’ – the better. With this in mind, the main idea has been the integration of ‘breakaway’ spaces – such as indoor ‘lounges’ or outdoor spaces – so to provide alternative work settings with consideration to well-being. Thus, various units were incorporated throughout such as private meeting rooms, a café/bar, 2 pantries with terraces, and a roof terrace for functions and events.
All the above are strategically located in continuation with numerous pocket gardens and extending simultaneously offices and meeting rooms.The main entrance is at ground level. Here are located the meeting rooms for clients, a conference room, a library, a pantry, the bar, a printing room and some multi-purpose rooms, while most offices are located at level 2. The direct visual relationship with the surrounding lush greenery immediately leads us to a very distant universe from the busy city outside the building.
In addition, about one-third of the building is primarily planned as multi-purpose rooms designed with the intent to be leased to sole practitioners while permitting them to plug into the main office infrastructure. These units simultaneously permit to accommodate for potential growth, staff increases and what-if factors, with ready-made spaces that allow for inexpensive future changes.
Lastly, the interiors overall are meant to be sober and minimalist. The floor is designed in custom-made prefabricated polished concrete plates that emphasise this aspect, and alongside the brick of the external walls reinforce a sense of tradition. Furthermore, the choice of woodworks, artworks and furniture designed and selected by Studio Supereka adds a contrast transforming the main spaces of 181Chambers@Semantan into a true gallery further expressing the ideas of values and solidity inherent to the firm. expressing the ideas of values and solidity inherent to the firm.
