The Beauty of Nature Sustainability Development Interior Design Tour Hanging Garden

I always drove along this street just behind the Atria Shopping Gallery at Damansara Jaya and have always wondered what was inside this distinguished vertical green façade. My name is Alex Lee and I am from DesignSea. Today's episode we had the opportunity to head up to this mysterious looking transformation that used to have a staircase like this and now it looks like this. If you're interested in design contents of such, don't forget to click on that subscribe button and be in the loop of more of our series of compelling design episodes. We were asked to wait for Pei San to attend to us at what seemed like a restful and cosy setting of a living hall. The living hall enjoys a beautiful framed site of the refurbished staircase. Separated with glass lining doors, it widens the visual impression of the narrow existing shop lots. Who would have imagined an old building being restored and transformed into such a remarkable space complemented by natural daylight and cross ventilation? Disregarding the unsightly view of the back alley buildings, the front and back façade was creatively designed to have a view of its own. My name is Pei San. I'm the co-founder of Essential Design Integrated Sengkang Perhat. One thing that we don't really like about the four-storey walk-up is that the shop houses was given a very short window that limited the light that coming into the building. So what we wanted in our new office is to bring in as much natural light as possible. Trying to have a big glass panel that bring in the exterior light, but the light come with heat. The glass panel also expose us to the streetscape, which is something that we wanted to get away with. That's how we actually have the idea of planter box and balconies associated with the glass panels. It started with the concept of the home office and our office is actually will be started at the first floor. That's where we want to have the balcony and garden elevated from ground. That's why we call it hanging garden. I think the green façade is definitely one that in our mind we wanted to be something different from the neighbour. People will never think of a building that do not require a signage to call it your office to be able to find you. That's how it can break through from the conventional. The natural ventilation, the plants, the sustainability idea is always in our mind. So when I design my own office, that's where it's part of the design elements. The ground floor being the street facing shop lots, we actually rented out for F&B unit. The office actually start from level one, then goes up to level two and three. So when one actually step into the gate, the first thing that you will see is actually the hanging garden on the first level. That before you turn it into the office unit, there's the reception and the interior design studio all about. Then when you continue to go up to the second floor, there's actually an external staircase that we're trying to create to give a garden to the living area, meaning the level two office inside. At the same time, that's actually the staircase which is considered a totally outdoor staircase, connecting from the second floor to the third floor, the architecture studio office. As we were walking up the stairs, we were amazed by how different the staircase was compared to the original staircase. Every step of each flight of staircase made it even more stimulating to find out what was unseen behind these walls. The staircase was semi-enclosed, causing it to be bright and pleasantly windy due to the natural ventilation. Pleasant not just because it was radiant and breezy, but upon arrival at the first floor, a lush garden under the staircase hails our arrival. The landscape extends out to the front facade, which makes it an astonishing feature for both the view from the interior and the exterior. The original intention of the design concept was to bring the exterior inwards through the staircase, creating the inside-out and outside-in kind of concept. In the design, we're actually utilising both staircases. The front staircase being the main access of the office, we're trying to make it as outdoor as possible, as green as possible. So when people are actually stepping into the building using the staircase, they still feel that they are outdoor, whereby in the next staircase, which is a fire exit, we're still utilising it as the internal use, office use. I think being a designer that always has experience in residential design, we always need to have a lot of detailing towards how one can store their items unseen. Then a lot of concealing parts, like cabinets, the bench, you don't expect it to be able to open as a storage to put the clutter away. The toilet's privacy and view was also wisely taken into account, allowing sufficient natural lighting for each toilet, which adds aesthetic value as a design complement to. First floor, we do not want to see our neighbour. We wanted to enjoy some light penetrating through the ceiling gap, to give us a natural light into the bathroom. The second toilet in the second floor, we wanted to experiment a situation where we do not have a chance, or very little chance, to have a window that can look outside. What the lighting can do to the interior. The design is actually to make it like a home office, to give them a better working environment. Bringing work back home was the norm before the pandemic. Have you ever thought of bringing home to work? Inspired by the work from home culture during the pandemic, Pei San and her partner had the idea of bringing home to work, an impressive and interesting design solution that makes good use of the long, narrow layout of older buildings. It's a level two, which actually started with a living area. Then we have a dining area and a theatre, which we can actually combine both dining and theatre when the sliding door is open. When the sliding door is closed, then we can actually call a separate dining and theatre area. There's also a fully functional kitchen with a spice garden next to it. As second floor being designed as a home, we wanted to put ourselves as the homeowner, how the homeowner actually will want to study, understand and enjoy the aesthetic in the home. That's how we actually bring in this LED light to be able to interchange with the light temperature from 2000K to 6000K, which is from yellow to white. Then it's associated with smart home as well. Because the design is actually being in the intermediate office lot, we're trying to bring natural lighting into the lot as much as possible. We're trying to avoid partitioning in between to cut off the natural light transmitting into the office. So when we're actually designing the amphitheatre, which in our mind we do require six metre by six metre space, but we do not want to partition to enclose the area, then the idea of it be a part of the meeting room then come about. We can maximise the width of the building, at the same time we can actually separating, splitting the meeting room become a meeting room by itself. Every year, more and more developments are being constructed to cater for new residents and even businesses. A handful of these buildings have been restored given a new life and purpose. If more and more awareness of restoring older buildings were to happen, I believe there will be less abandoned buildings and it will also benefit the mature townships and community. This episode is a collaboration with Malaysian Institute of Interior Designers, also known as MIID. Led by influential interior designers all over Malaysia, the vision of the institute is to develop a sophisticated society of designers who are conversant and appreciative of the interior design scene. MIID is an interior designer association that's non-profit, non-government, but we are actually together to listen to the members' voices to push them to the national board level. If you're an interior designer practising in Malaysia and have not enrolled yourself as a member yet, click on the description link below to find out more about being part of this aspiring community. My name is Alex Lee and I am from DesignScene. A reminder again, if you enjoyed today's episode and have not subscribed to us yet, do it now and click on the notification buzzer to stay in the loop of more of our compelling episodes. Thank you for watching.