ARTE S: Penang’s Sculpted Mountains
SPARK has recently completed Arte S residential development located at Jalan Bukit Gambier near the city of George Town in Penang, Malaysia. The project comprise a pair of condominium towers containing 460 apartments. The tallest tower is 180m, the buildings together constitute the tallest “twin tower” development on the island. The client Nusmetro, a Malaysian property developer commissioned SPARK Architects to design the building and its surrounding landscape. The towers’ flowing form was inspired by the dramatic topography of Penang Island. The towers are located between the island’s undulating hills (Bukit Gambier) and the Penang Strait.
ARCHITECTURE
The Arte S twin residential towers sit at the base Bukit Gambir, a lush tropical mountain located at the heart of Penang Island off the Western coast of Malaysia. Georgetown - the city, which despite its small size, is one of the most interesting places in Malaysia. It is not only the famous gastronomic capital of Malaysia, but also the first walled town founded by Great Britain in Southeast Asia. The oldest portion of the city centre has been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site since 2008, recognized as having a “unique architectural and cultural townscape without parallel anywhere in East and Southeast Asia”.
The architecture of the city combines European and East Asian features. And although the first skyscrapers of the city were made in the international style, the recent time buildings are distinguished by bright decorative features and aspiration to reflect in their architecture local cultural features, nature and original traditions of the region.
The geometry and composition of the towers was inspired the dramatic surrounding land form that mediates between the steeply rising hillside of Bukit Gambier and the coast line of the Penang Strait.
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Materials provided by SPARK Architects
Illustrations provided by Nusmetro Group