Central Market Kuala Lumpur began life as a wet market in 1888, while the current Art Deco style building was completed in 1937. Throughout the years, Central Market has been a prominent landmark to promoting Malaysian culture through the sales of local foods as well as arts and craft products to both the foreign tourists as well as local visitors.
The client approached us with the intent of upgrading Central Market by bringing back a market, albeit a contemporary one, into the building. The mall layout is reconfigured to house arts & crafts products along the East side of the mall whereas the ‘pasar’ (market) and the associated foodhall will be along the West side.
The 18,808sqft site is located on the Ground Floor which will feature a hybrid of a specialty grocer focused on promoting locally sourced produce and a food hall with booths and restaurants serving authentic local dishes. The layout is an open space with both areas being visible from either side.
The interior’s base canvas is kept minimal to receive an array of vibrant products. The site’s existing steel grilles are retained to be reused, along with three strips of existing Peranakan Tile “carpet floors” which formed part of the major refurbishment on central market done in the 1990’s. As this is a listed building, its external envelope cannot be altered. Thus layers of its history, from the various iterations of internal extensions and upgrades over the years are considered carefully with the current intended programmatic use. Decisions are then made on what to retain and reveal, and what needed to be replaced and upgraded to suit.
The main living areas on both floors are arranged towards the view; and on the ground level, the various connections towards the pockets of gardens surrounding the house became important.
The larger garden at the rear will eventually be populated with fruit trees whilst other pockets may take on different characters, for us to initiate and for the owner to add to and nurture in time.
