THINK CITY INITIATIVES
Kuala Lumpur
“We took the risk and opportunity to explore this further and created a flexible event space and a collaborative workspace called Uppercase on the first floor.” he added. For APW, adaptive reuse has proven to be a sustainable solution that makes business sense with revenue from a combination of its printing business, and rentals from fixed tenants and event space hires.
The park was opened in August 2016 and proved to be a hit, drawing hundreds of people when APW hosted Malaysia Day celebrations a month later. With the experience that the APW team has garnered from the heritage repurposing exercise, Soon Wei plans to spread his wings, looking at potential expansion within Klang Valley and Southeast Asia. OUR ARTPROJECTS @ ZHONGSHAN
Most of the building’s original form and structure has also been retained whilst incorporating amenities such as air conditioning and new lighting grids. A Pocket Park
“During the rejuvenation period of APW, we noticed that a lot of the external spaces were poorly utilised and zoned for storage and dumping grounds. While activation at internal spaces were picking up, a thought came to mind about caring for the external spaces as well,” Soon Wei said. He prepared a paper entitled ‘Projek Poket Pokok – Creating a Pocket Park within a Repurposed Heritage Printing Factory’ and presented it to Think City. Think City then provided a RM190,000 grant for the greening project, enabling Soon Wei to hire POW Ideas, an architectural design firm, to create a pocket park, adding shady trees, terraces where families could sit together, and public toilets. The space also features a bright red stage that can be used for events, exhibitions and performances.
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Located at 80 Jalan Rotan off Jalan Kampung Attap, the 1950s building comprises three interconnected shophouses divided into 12 units. In the past, it provided small entrepreneurs the opportunity to plant and grow their businesses and was home to the Selangor Zhongshan Association. However, it had fallen into disrepair in later years. “We wanted to continue the same spirit of entrepreneurship that led to this building being erected in the first place,” says Liza Ho, one of the OUR ArtProjects directors behind the restoration project. “It’s an exciting project as the entire building will be a centre for art, design and research,” said Snow Ng, the other half of OUR ArtProjects. Galvanising the Creative Arts Community
Leveraging on the strength of their extensive experience and networks in the Asia Pacific, the duo aim to introduce Malaysian and Southeast Asian art to a global audience and use the OUR ArtProjects Gallery as a platform for dialogue and ideas exchange with the arts communities in the region.
“We wanted to create a space with a sense of community within Kuala Lumpur and hope that the rejuvenated building will be a hub for social enterprises, start-ups, and art/culture institutions,” Liza said. Recognising the projects's potential to spur the rejuvenation of Kampung Attap, Think City approved two grants for the project. The first for restoration, repair and renovation works, while the second was for one of the lots to be converted into a space for art events, exhibitions, talks and workshops. Think City also provided technical input and advice on city planning requirements, which included facilitating discussions between the owner and tenants to smoothen the process of launching the project. The building has attracted young and creative enterprises such as the Malaysian Design Archive, The Ricecooker Archives, Tandang Store, Bogus Merchandise, Artist Studio, Reading Library by Amateur Collective and several others. So far, the tenants have expressed satisfaction and excitement with the concept, and having a place to call their own. “There is a lot of coolness about this shophouse … so much fresh energy coming from the art community and the design activists,” says Alak, co-owner of Tandang Store, a record store company with its own music label — Tandang Records.