YTL Residence Damansara

Is this the moment to build a 32,292-square-foot private house? In all fairness, the house in Kuala Lumpur, which was completed in 2008 after five years of design and construction, was born of headier times. The client, Yeoh Seok Hong, wanted to accommodate three generations of his Chinese-Malaysian family, which numbers eleven persons, in a house also designed for business entertaining. It is named the YTL Residence for the client’s father, 80-year-old Yeoh Tiong Lay, founder of the YTL Group, a company that specializes in the management of regulated utilities and infrastructural construction projects.

The YTL Residence is located in the residential Damansara area of the Malaysian capital, where it occupies 95 percent of a hilltop site with a view of the city center and Cesar Pelli’s 88-storey Petronas Towers (1998). Unusual in both size and form, the house marks a significant feat of collaboration that encompasses architecture, engineering, interior design, and landscaping.

The client knew of the French designer Patrick Jouin from stays at the Plaza Athenée Hotel in Paris, where he and his father admired Jouin’s interiors for the restaurant and bar. Jouin, formerly a designer with Philippe Starck’s Paris studio, and his recent partner, Sanjit Manku, a Canadian-trained architect who had previously worked for Yabu Pushelberg, hoped the family would share their commitment to Modern architecture, since Daramsara is filled with all sorts of “neo”-style architecture from around the world. They found Yeoh and his wife Kathleen were not only keen on having a Modern house, but desired a spectacular one that would demonstrate the construction know-how of the YTL companies. Even though Jouin and Manku had not designed a house before, the Yeohs were not worried: The head of architecture for the construction arm of the YTL Group, Baldip Singh, and the chief of its civil engineering department, Lee Hang Meng, would be playing key roles in building the house. Yeoh himself is an engineer who remained closely involved with the structural aspects of the project.

Unlike many Asian cities, Kuala Lumpur still has a great deal of tropical vegetation, which landscape designer Sophie Agate Ambroise and her firm, Officina del Paesaggio, carefully studied—planting both the exterior band of land that surrounds the high walls of the house, the lush inner courtyard at the street level, and the upper gardens near the swimming pool. Jouin and Manku designed the residence so that the more public spaces for guests—a ballroom, a formal dining room that seats 30 people, a large parking garage, a wine cellar, and a chapel—are located on the lowest level, separated from the family spaces above. The main floor for the family itself contains a living room, dining room, and kitchen, but is certainly spacious enough to receive guests. It features a 16-foot-high ceiling and a glazed wall facing east toward downtown Kuala Lumpur. Many of the main level’s glass walls slide back to allow cool breezes to enter the interior, although air-conditioning in this hot climate is still necessary.

The two upper floors include a total of nine bedrooms, with one suite for Yeoh Tiong Lay and his wife and a double-height library, and a second suite for Yeoh Seok Hong and his wife, along with bedrooms for the family’s seven children.

In arriving at the design of this organically shaped house, Jouin states, “We were searching for a spatial and formal language as dramatic as the landscape itself. While we didn’t want to create a village house or a traditional tropical house, we thought it should be truly based in the particular spatial character of the natural environment.”

The structure, a hybrid of reinforced concrete, steel, and wood framing, was complicated by the biomorphic shape as well as the program. The lower level of the house is contained within a poured-in-place-concrete base on which the main level sits and the upper levels are balanced. Three concrete core units at particular points—the main entrance, the elevator core, and the kitchen—support the dramatically cantilevered upper volume containing the two bedroom levels. Jouin conceived the body of the house “as a carapace that protects the private spaces.” A metallic skin wraps around the cantilevered form in a way that gives the house something of an alien presence in the midst of the much less inventive architecture of the neighborhood. Jouin explains, “My work often has a sensual shell, with a good deal of attention focused on the skin.”

Because of the landscaping, the house blends into its natural setting in spite of occupying a vast proportion of the site, which is about 1 acre in size. As the visitor ascends from the automobile entrance at street to the living and family dining area a floor above, he or she has the impression of being simultaneously outside and inside the house. The integration with the outdoors recalls the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, yet at the same time its openness and its elevation off the ground relates it to certain traditional Malaysian architecture. It is an original attempt to define a new residential architecture for a tropical climate, if at a scale few may find feasible to emulate.

Source: Architectural Record

Lake Edge Won 'Best Residential Development'

YTL Land & Development Berhad has emerged as one of the biggest winners of the upcoming CNBC Asia Pacific Property Awards 2009. A total of seven awards were won for three of their projects – Centrio at Pantai Hillpark, Lake Edge at Puchong and The Maple at Sentul West. The awards ceremony will be held on 16 July 2009 in Singapore.

Four of the seven awards were attributed to Centrio, which is YTL Land’s Small Office, Home Office (SOHO) suites, boutique offices and trendy retail stores offering in Pantai Hillpark. The four awards won are ‘Best Mixed Development’ and ‘The Architecture Award’ under the Commercial category while Centrio’s SOHO suites were awarded for ‘Best Architecture’ and ‘Best Property Marketing’ in the Residential category.

Dato’ Yeoh Seok Kian, Executive Director of YTL Land & Development Berhad said of the wins, “As a relatively young developer, being awarded at a regional level reaffirms our status as a builder of communities, and underscores the sense of innovation that drives the team at YTL.”

He added, “It is indeed an honour to be recognised for what we do. But more importantly, it’s an acknowledgment of the passion and commitment of the YTL Land team that has allowed us to attain our goals of building quality homes with enriching and unique living concepts.”

Meanwhile, YTL Land’s developments in Lake Edge, Puchong won ‘Best Residential Development (over 5 residences)’ while The Maple at Sentul West picked up two awards for ‘Best Residential High-Rise Development (over 12 storey)’ and ‘Best Residential High-Rise Architecture (over 12 storey)’.

It is not an all Malaysian affair for the YTL group as YTL Corporation in Singapore has also scored two wins for Sandy Island luxury villas winning ‘Best Development’ and ‘Best Development Marketing’.

The Asia Pacific Property Awards 2009 in association with CNBC Arabiya is part of the International Property Awards, the world’s most prestigious competition dedicated to honouring the best real estate developments across the globe.

Source: iProperty

A Responsible Development

YTL Land's Lake Edge development in Puchong, Selangor, has won the award for Best Residential Project (low-rise) in the Malaysia Property Award by FIABCI-Malaysia. By Kenneth Cheong The key to a successful business is to create something that everybody wants out of nothing. In the business of property development, YTL Land in Lake Edge, has transformed a piece of parched land into a thriving oasis. At 80 acres, the Lake Edge Development in Puchong, Selangor, consists of 420 units of luxury terraces and villas. Lake Edge achieved two very important goals as a successful development - creating an upper-class community in a less than desirable neighbourhood and transforming a feature-less landscape into a thriving 'lakeside living' community. As a developer, there is a dire need for convention to be constantly reassessed and challenged. The clean-lines aesthetic of the architecture is a clear trajectory from the traditional pitched roof designs favoured by other property developers in 2004, at the time of Lake Edge’s launching.

Hitting a hot spot, Dato’ Yeoh Seok Kian, Executive Director of YTL Land Explains, ‘insights from our market research showed that our target buyers are for homes that can offer them unconventional lifestyle experiences. They tend to be those from the younger generation who have been exposed to the kind of lifestyles found in the West, and therefore know what to look for and how to appreciate it.'

With 45% of the land devoted to landscaping, Dato’ Yeoh tells us that the landscaping was a very conscious and a major concern at the onset of the project to transform the perception of the site. ‘Our first order of business was to preserve the 12-acre disused mining lake that bordered the 80-acre development. But we faced a huge challenge of making the lake the focal point of the development, as many homeowners found undesirable. To turn around this perception, we transformed the lake into a lifestyle feature (through landscaping and masterplanning) that would influence a different kind of living concept, where the homes, the outdoors and the community come together in a beautiful neighbourhood.

The landscaping was the final touch in completing the development.

Ms. Yap of Praxis Design was enlisted to materialize Dato’ Yeoh’s vision from the inception of the masterplan. In what was a piece of land bordering a disused tin mining lake, is now a lakeside community extensively interwoven with intricate landscaping.

At such a large scale, a framework of key ideas became the basis for more detailed features. The lake itself was developed as a focal point. Swathes of land were designated as green zones and developed into individual feature landscaped parks. The housing lots were planned to line curved streets terminating at cul-de-sacs to achieve a more organic masterplan, a departure from traditional linear row-planning of typical terraces.

In designing the landscaping, Ms Yap sees the green spaces as breezeways. The main parks are extrapolated into a web throughout the development bringing cool air scented by fragrant hedges into each home. This web of green also provides a landscaped vehicular-free pedestrian network to each home, giving the community convenient and direct access to green parks.

The lake, which was restored and gentrified naturally, became a focal point within the masterplan. Man-made water features carried the waterfront theme beyond the constraints of the lake to bring the calming and cooling effects of this central feature to the overall development in snaking water trails along landscape parks.

The finishing touches to the masterplan were the injection of humour and colour by Ms Yap through her details. Playful themed spaces were introduced. Of particular delight are zones for kite launching and sculptural pieces of street furniture, which line the streets.

As a community-driven development, Ms Yap also focused on educationally themed spaces. Enlarged educational write-up displayed in panels in primary colours tell the story of each activity-specific park or space and serve to balance learning and playing.

One of the criteria for this year’s FIABCI awards is to focus on ‘Environmental Impact’. Dato’ Yeoh points out that ‘YTL has been practicing environmental responsibility as a company philosophy for over a decade now, and with that consciousness in mind, lake Edge was designed as a responsible development that would create a sustainable community in harmony with its environment.

As an exercise in successful property development, the heavy investment on peripherals of the development, as landscaping in the case of Lake Edge, has obviously paid off.” ‘…our efforts have indeed paid off from the start when all 192 units of the Courtyard Homes were snapped up within three days of its official launch in 2004. Following launches continued to draw increased interest and demand, driving further the price of Lake Edge homes and its appreciation value,’ says Dato’ Yeoh.

As a property developer, YTL Land has clearly figured out a winning formula in the business of property development.
In addition to being awarded Best Residential Project (low-rise) in Malaysia Property Award 2008 by FIABCI-Malaysia, YTL Land has also picked up the Best Residential Project (high-rise) for The Maple at Sentul West, sweeping all residential awards presented this year.

YTL Land Goes Ahead With Projects

YTL Land & Development Bhd, the property arm of YTL Corp Bhd, has no intention of deferring any of its projects despite the current economic downturn.

Executive director Datuk Yeoh Seok Kian says the company’s plans are on track despite the weaker market sentiment.

“We are not isolated from the effects of the current credit crunch but neither are we scaling back or deferring any of our projects.

“In fact, we have gone ahead with both our Malaysian and Singapore property launches with the confidence that residential properties in prime locations or in well-populated catchment areas will continue to enjoy good appreciation and attract investors,” he says.

YTL Land is currently focusing on its Lake Edge development located in Puchong, where it has just launched its latest phase of landed homes. Called Waterville, the development comprises 50 units of 2½-storey semi-detached houses.

Apart from its Waterville homes, which have already secured a 30% take-up rate, YTL Land will also launch its Parkville homes (also in Lake Edge), which comprises a collection of eight bungalows and eight semi-detached homes.

“We are optimistic of achieving the RM120mil GDV (gross development value) target set for both our Waterville and Parkville launches by our financial year end in June 2009,” Yeoh says.

Despite the weaker economic climate, Yeoh says YTL Land would not be revising the prices of its ongoing projects downwards.“We will not devalue any one of our projects, primarily because most of the acquisition of our land-bank has been the result of smart partnerships, resulting in lower upfront investment costs. This gives us room to pace ourselves against market conditions,” he says.

YTL Land is cautiously optimistic about the economic climate ahead.

“Although consumer sentiment has been dampened by the current economic situation, there are many buyers who are still on the lookout for good buys that can provide returns over the long term,’’ Yeoh says, adding that the company is working with banks and other relevant parties to ensure buyers’ needs are taken care of.

Yeoh believes that Malaysia remains an attractive market for foreigners as properties are still very affordable compared to neighbouring countries. The Government’s continued push of the Malaysia Property Inc (MPI) and “Malaysia My 2nd Home” programme has opened up opportunities for the country.

“The abolishment of the Real Property Gains Tax and the limit on the number of residential property loans obtained by foreigners has also added to Malaysia’s appeal as a property haven,” he adds.

Source: The Star

Developer's Good Track Record Can Help Boost Sales

A developer’s track record is what buyers look at during challenging economic times, says YTL Land & Development Bhd sales and marketing senior manager Judy Loo.

Speaking during a media tour of its leasehold Waterville Homes, Loo said buyers were not put off by the fact that a particular project was not freehold.

“I don’t think it is a hindrance. Buyers today are more influenced by the track record of a developer, especially in the current challenging times,” she said.

She added that the homes, which are part of YTL Land’s high-end, 80-acre Lake Edge project in Puchong, had received strong interest mainly from Puchong residents.

“Most of the potential purchasers are from the Puchong area who are looking to upgrade. We have also received interest from existing Lake Edge residents,” Loo said.

She added that the Waterville Homes, now about 65% completed, comprised 50 units of 2½-storey semi-detached houses with a private lap pool each. The standard lot size is 40ft x 85ft.

Built on 4.4 acres of leasehold land, the homes are expected to be completed by end-2009.

Priced at RM1.6mil per unit, this phase would have a gross development value of RM80mil, Loo said.

Lake Edge comprises multi-themed fenceless homes set in a modern tropical neighbourhood. A 12-acre lake is also part of the development.

The project received the award for best low-rise residential development at the FIABCI Malaysia Property Award 2008 held in Petaling Jaya on Tuesday.

Source: The Star, 14 November 2008

YTL Offers Homes With Private Pool

YTL Land & Development Bhd is offering semi-detached houses with their own private pool in its Lake Edge upmarket residential development in Puchong.

Called the Waterville, the 50 units of homes are priced from RM1.59mil each. The design includes a lawn on the top floor and a long timber deck at the pool.

YTL Land general manager Edward T. G. Lee said many people had registered their interest in the Waterville homes (currently in an advanced stage of construction) that would feature 3,800 sq ft built-up area with four bedrooms and a maid’s room. The standard lot size is 40ft x 85ft.

Each bedroom comes with an en suite bathroom and the choice to shower in the outdoors. The master bedroom is located on the top floor while three bedrooms are on the first floor. The dry kitchen is in front while the living room is set at the rear of the house for privacy.

“There are many Puchong residents who are looking to upgrade. They like staying in Puchong because of the many amenities and it is very difficult for them to uproot,” Lee said on a media tour of the gated and guarded community yesterday.

He was confident the Waterville would be well received despite the current property market slowdown as there were few quality semi-detached houses in Puchong and that Lake Edge offered so much in terms of lifestyle living.

Lake Edge Puchong features a collection of courtyard, terrace, semi-detached homes and bungalows.

Lake Edge Sets New Benchmark For Resort Living

SOME property developers are like magicians. Like magicians who can turn a toad into a prince, developers such as YTL Land & Development Bhd can also transform a 100-acre leasehold land beside a former mining lake in Puchong into a fairly high-end residential enclave called the Lake Edge.

The name is apt as this gated and guarded community is beside a former mining pond where part of it has been turned into a nice park.

It is a quiet haven, cloistered from bustling Puchong where the Tesco hypermarket is a mere stone's throw away.

Indeed the Lake Edge has been transformed beyond recognition into the best residential development in Puchong!

Gurkha guards check on everyone at the guardhouse. The state-of-the-art security with perimeter fencing and panic buttons in every house also give residents peace of mind.

Unlike some neighbouring projects that still adopt conventional designs, the Lake Edge houses are all landed and “speak” the same architectural language featuring a collection of courtyard, terrace, semi-detached homes and bungalows, all with clean-cut designs and wide-open windows in a pleasant surrounding.

For example, there are broad curved streets to promote a safe environment for residents particularly children, thus creating a picturesque effect.

The Water Edge (a chic waterfront esplanade with a skate park, water promenade, and nice playground equipment) and Linear Park (meandering forest footpath, spice garden, and reflexology trail) all foster healthy living and a peaceful environment.

A modern clubhouse, completed about a year ago, now stands beside the lake. The moderate size clubhouse is for the residents' exclusive use. It boasts of a nice swimming pool, a cafe on the first floor and tennis and basketball courts.

Behind is a big open space planted with trees, children's playground, boardwalk, jogging track and a row of 33 units of Promenade Terraces houses overlooking a small lake.

These 24ft x 85ft houses with 3,430 sq ft built-up area were completed last October and the last few units are being offered for sale from RM799,000. The 350 sq ft master bedroom on the top floor has an attached bathroom, and an exotic outdoor shower area.

Some of the purchasers have also moved into their Pavilion (37 units) and Garden Terraces (47 units) 22ft x 100ft homes. They were handed over around last July.

When these 4+1-room, 2½-storey houses were launched a few years ago, they drew many people with their innovative concepts.

Buyers are offered a choice of a spacious living room (housed in a pavilion) overlooking a 20ft private back garden for the Pavilion Terraces (RM680,000/3,186 sq ft built-up) where the Phase 1 units have been sold out and an outdoor jacuzzi for the Garden Terraces (from RM582,000/3,117 sq ft).

Both types have 4+1 rooms. Prices of some of the houses are said to have gone up by 50%.

The first to be launched were the 192 units of two-storey 24ft x 85ft Courtyard Homes. Phase 1 that was sold out within three days of official launch in April 2004 was completed in January 2006.

They have two built-up sizes of 2,583 sq ft and 2,560 sq ft and were priced from RM380,000 to RM788,000.

Everything looks fine except the rubbish compartment that is rather small. YTL Land should perhaps plant some tall pine trees so that they could serve as a natural boundary and partly block the not-so-nice view of other housing projects.

The developer Pakatan Perakbina Sdn Bhd (a wholly-owned subsidiary of YTL Land) will be launching the Parkville, an exclusive collection of eight semi-detached houses and eight bungalows.

The 5+1-room, 50ft x 90ft semi-detached house will have 4,102 sq ft built-up area. Meanwhile, the 6+1-room bungalow will have lot size of 60ft x 93ft and 60ft x 103 ft and built-up areas of 5,187 sq ft and 5,194 sq ft respectively.
“We have not decided on the pricing yet as we plan to sell them only after their completion,” said YTL Land executive director Datuk Yeoh Seok Kian, who showed work in progress on one of the bungalows that come with Egyptian marble slabs, Burmese teak strips and metal roof trusses.

The good thing about the Lake Edge, as Yeoh pointed out, is that buyers must abide by a strict set of rules and could not renovate, as they like. They cannot, for instance, change the house's facade or colour or build a high wall. This will ultimately protect property values.

Yeoh said 50 units of the 2½-storey semi-detached houses, called the Waterville, might be launched in February 2008.

Each of these houses will have their own lap pool!

Source: The Star, 21 May 2007