The starting point for this project was a 7,885 sq ft disused furniture warehouse that was in the vicinity of the Sekeping Kong Heng, next to the famed local Kong Heng coffee shop in Ipoh old town. The brief was to transform the space into a restaurant for the local restaurant chain, Plan B.
We wished to maintain the existing steel superstructure of the original warehouse as it articulated the space in a powerful way in its bare state. We restrained the building works to the bare minimum, by keeping the linear central jacked roof clear of interventions. Instead, we inserted a more solid block that housed the services on one side and a more transparent block one housing the air-conditioned dining area on the opposite side, all within the outline formed by the steel structure.
The entrance is defined by the bar that has two sides : one facing ‘inside’, (the airconditioned dining area), the other facing ‘outside’, the naturally ventilated jacked roof area where we introduced planting and called the ‘atrium dining’ area.
The end of the warehouse faced another development which housed the raised pool structure accessible by Sekeping Kong Heng hotel guests, and the space in between the two was buffered by planting of trees, which we called the ‘courtyard’.
