Univ 360 is a verdant residential and commercial development of greens located in the established township of Serdang Jaya. Situated with a great frontage to the North South Highway and Jalan Raya 2, the development has a prime location. It consists of two main components: 18 units of retail shops and 2 residential tower blocks comprising of 675 units erected on top of a 5-storey car park podium. With an intention of revitalizing the rather dull industrial area of Serdang Jaya, Univ 360 extends the bustling commercial activities in Seri Kembangan towards the neighborhood.
The building configuration is primarily driven by the "site force", which takes into account the sun path, site geometry, accessibility, views, frontage, and terrain. Initially a massive tower block, it is shifted, rotated and staggered on the planar projection, and then broken down into smaller parts on all elevations to reinforce the sculptural whole. This results in a less utilitarian and much forgiving silhouette upon visual projection on street level.
Social stigma associated with mass high-rise housing includes the neglected common spaces, cleanliness, and social responsiveness, as well as a lack of interaction among residents, resulting in poor community spirit. This is in stark contrast to the countryside's Kampung lifestyle where villagers know each other well. Social spaces are proposed as interactive loci for the community within Univ 360. These additional “ground” levels allow generous public areas for recreation and social interaction throughout the high-rise, despite the inner-city high-density location.
The design intent focused on nurturing a "communal spirit" between its inhabitants. Its emphasis is less on the façade treatment and formal expressions, but more on creating inclusive spaces throughout the building, from the podium to the rooftop, through various landscaped spaces such as sky terraces, roof gardens, hanging gardens, and pocket gardens. These semi-outdoor areas encourage time spent outdoors and are used for activities like gardening, meditation, or socializing, and can help create sense of connection to nature in an urban environment.
The architect tilted the configuration of units in the west wing to face the southwest orientation, carving triangular ventilation voids, extending the foyers, creating ante spaces upon entry to each unit and minimizing direct sunlight and glare into the habitable spaces throughout the day. Shifts in the configurations form a visually engaging, staggered effect to the overall composition of the tower. Going high in the tropics means cooler breezes, less dust, more security, less noise, better views. To take advantage of these conditions, the staggered design allows cross ventilation, enhancing the gentle breezes by funneling them through the towers.
The sky garden is a double volume space carved through extraction of 2 levels of habitable units across the towers. Lush greens and pools fills the perimeter of the communal area, framing views to the neighbouring skyline. The Avant Garde expression within the sky garden is composed by a pallete of concrete strips for floors and off-form concrete shear walls. With a biophilic concept in mind, the landscape architect proposed the concrete sheer walls to be casted into a tree-like form with playful perforations. The porosity mimics a forest ornamented with massive tree trunks and allows breezes to pass through the towers for cross-ventilation. Additionally, a steel mezzanine bridge cantilevers elegantly above the sky garden and connects the residents from one tower to the other, promoting circulation and evoking curiosity to explore these common areas.
Biophilic landscapes were incorporated into the design from the earliest stages of conceptualization. A new urban ecological paradigm is created by integrating green spaces into every level of the building. Vistas, circulations and the user experience are carefully crafted to connect the residents with nature. These sky garden intervals foster interaction and are part of the inhabitant’s daily life. As every resident passes by and looks over these spaces along the corridors, they can greet their fellow neighbors, see children playing and hearing other residents chatting.
Besides the sky roof gardens, the project adopts robust passive design strategies such as rainwater harvesting tanks for irrigation, natural ventilated lift lobbies, and innovative hanging gardens with deep planters were integrated into the towers. This project involved cultivating a total of 660 trees and 31420 shrubs, a sustainable ecosystem that absorbs CO2 emissions from up to 547 inhabitants and produces oxygen for 77 people.
On an urban scale, Univ 360 serves as a beacon along the North-South Highway, with a roof garden abundant with mature trees and green walls, contrasting the monolithic concrete towers of the skyline in southern Kuala Lumpur. A dynamic form is achieved through configurations of the massing through subtraction and rotation, accompanied by repeated fin-like structures that encase the towers.
The structural systems are efficient and continuous, from the penthouse level down to the podium car parks, utilizing sheer wall construction for the tower blocks to eliminate large load-bearing columns that would create kinks in the living and dining spaces, resulting in better spatial quality and loftier ceiling headroom. The sky garden is treated as an urban scale veranda, sheltered at high level by the preceding habitable floors and open sided for visual transparency, revealing the bold concrete structures that supports the towers. It is a social community space where artworks using plywood salvaged from the site inspired by the project is displayed while compensating the lack of green within the surrounding context.
The architect has allocated abundant space for vegetation to sprawl, covering 64% of the site area. Common areas like the entrance and podium areas are enriched with vegetation, which cools the incoming wind that carries heat from nearby factories, buildings, and tar-paved roads and improves human comfort within these unsheltered areas. They offer inhabitants a variety of experiences, from the intricately designed carpet of water, gravel and vegetation, to the extensive indoor-outdoor facilities at the pool level, to barbecues, and function areas at sky terraces.
Usage of locally sourced building materials with low carbon footprints, namely steel wire mesh panels, vent blocks, off-form concrete walls, timber, bamboo screens and gravel, creates a raw expression that blends seamlessly within the industrial context of Seri Kembangan. Landscaping is used extensively as a facade treatment and forms a major part of the development’s material palette both internally and externally. The creepers form a mosaic with each type taking over its most suitable conditions of light, shade and wind.
Univ 360’s quantum of green is an exciting number, with a collective total of 10,520 m2 of greens zones: the perimeter landscape and open areas encompasses 1950 m2, the podium landscape extends over 4860 m2, the 16th floor Sky Terrace comprises 2650 m2, the sky deck and roof garden in Block B occupies 320 m2, and the pocket gardens and hanging gardens covers 740 m2. This is an addition of 54% of green spaces over the conventional 10% green reserve, and hence, Univ 360 has achieved the highest green ratio in Malaysia to date.
"The sustainability of a building should be evaluated beyond its materials and energy performance. We aim to create a sustainable community that fosters a balanced lifestyle and nurture a positive environment for the inhabitants. Through these efforts, we want to foster positive community values that have been lost due to rapid urbanization and mass-produced urban forms within these high-rise commercial projects." - AATA
