BY NEVILLE TIMOTHY SANDERS & LAKESH KUMAR
KUCHING: For Hock Seng Lee (HSL), adding public spaces to the Citadines Langit Kuching high-rise project is important to meet the area’s need for such spaces.
Neat Plan (HSL Group) Director, Yu Ji, said this as he felt that there is not enough public spaces here.
“Sometimes, as a local person during the weekends, we do not know where we can go to hang around, because there is not enough public places.
“So we at HSL had the opportunity to do something for Kuching City Centre.
“We made it a point that we wanted to use private investment to create a public space, especially for Citadines Langit Kuching, and that is why we made a rule that anything to do with a guardhouse, we would incorporate it, because it must be open to the public,” he said.
Yu Ji said this in a press conference during the ground-breaking ceremony for the high-rise building project, officiated by Kuching South City Council (MBKS) Mayor, Datuk Wee Hong Seng, at Ember Traditional Charcoal Cooking here today.
Regarding his favourite part about the whole design process for the high-rise project, Yu Ji revealed that it was the architectural design competition in 2021.
“Because when we did the competition, we partnered up with the Malaysian Architect Institute, and one of the rules that they gave us is that we have no final say.
“We must respect their expertise and opinion, despite us being the building developer.
“We chose the design, because of all the designs that we saw, the design with the staircase is one of the few that really emphasised public space.
“The building is very relevant, it has all three components: condominium, hotel and public space alongside retail shop,” he added.
Additionally, project architect, David Ong, said that Citadines Langit Kuching will be a certified green building.
“As we were developing the design, our focus was on the energy efficiency.
“We are working with the other consultants as well, just to make sure that we are able to manage the energy efficiency for the building project,” he said.
