buildings – Eris Goes To

Bordering the fringes of the Kuala Lumpur city centre, Bangsar South is perhaps best known as a modern business hub, home to multi-story office towers, luxury condos and chic retail outlets. The commercial area is nicely landscaped with parks, plenty of greenery and wide, paved roads, and the three main buildings – The Sphere, The Nexus and The Vertical – are all connected via convenient pedestrian bridges.

I was in the neighborhood recently and decided to walk around to take in the sights – here are some photos.

20210226_083230 — I like how the area has been designed to incorporate lots of public green spaces, like this park with water features, sandwiched between towering offices. A perfect respite for office workers during lunch break.

20210226_083641 — The iconic TM Tower, designed to resemble the shape of a bamboo shoot. It also looks remarkably like Stark Tower. When the Avengers premiered in Malaysia, the Avengers logo was projected onto the tower, as part of TM’s collaboration with Marvel Malaysia.

20210226_084140 — One thing the Bangsar South neighbourhood has no shortage of: beautiful, modern architecture.

20210226_084921 — Aside from offices, Bangsar South also boasts a repertoire of chic restaurants, cafes and eateries as well. Some of them are pretty famous; like Botanica + Co, SOULed Out, and The Farm Foodcraft. There’s also a branch of my favourite tonkatsu place, Tonkatsu by Ma Maison, here.

20210226_095526 — Bridge connecting The Vertical, The Sphere and Nexus.

I’ve been watching a lot of walking tours on Youtube lately, so here’s my attempt at one! I don’t have a gymbal or anything so it might be shaky at times.

When mentioning modern Taipei, one building comes to mind. Looming over the city skyline, the iconic Taipei 101 in Xinyi District stands at 509m, with 101 floors, and is visible from miles and miles around. It used to be the tallest building in the world from 2004 until the Burj Khalifa opened in 2009. Now it holds eighth place.

Exiting from the subway, we craned our necks upwards and felt really tiny against the massive monolith. From our vantage point, It seemed to tower straight to the heavens…

Some interesting facts:

Designed to be both resistant and flexible, the building can withstand typhoon winds up to 60m/sec and strong earthquakes, making it one of the most structurally stable buildings ever constructed.
It is only 660ft from a major fault line.
Its foundation is reinforced by piles driven 80m into the ground.

Other than gawk and take pictures, there is also a shopping mall to explore at the base of the tower. Had a quick lunch at the food court with a bowl of fluffy white rice topped with various braised and waxed meats.

Getting There

Take the subway to Taipei 101/World Trade Center on the Red Line (Xinyi- Tamsui). The station exits directly at the base of the building.

Tag: buildings

Walking Tour: Bangsar South, Kuala Lumpur

Visiting Taiwan’s Tallest Tower – Taipei 101