The centrepiece of a 6.35-hectare scheme integrating 147000-square-metres of domed retail space, multiple high-rise apartment buildings and an MRT underground station, this 118-storey mixed-use tower accommodates 16000 office workers over 50000-square-metres, a six-star Park Hyatt hotel, rooftop restaurant and a two-level 360 degree observation deck accessed via double-storey, external glass elevators on the building’s north facade.

Diamond in plan, Merdeka 118 is sited on an axis with neighbouring Stadium Negara to the east and a new lineal park to the west of Stadium Merdeka. Designed by Sasaki Associates; the latter providing both a concourse for stadium attendees and formal access to the tower’s upper lobby level.

By articulating the tower’s structural pathways with a combination of differentiated glazing and internal illumination, its crystalline form reveals itself, day and night, as a unified composition of disparate facets, patterns and textures. As such, it is both a metaphor for the myriad states, territories, ethnicities and cultures that comprise the Malaysian nation and referential to the designs of its traditional arts and crafts.

Photography: PNB Merdeka, Karl Fender, Steve Pierman