The Asian Institute of Chartered Bankers(AICB) building in Kuala Lumpur is a training centre of excellence for the banking industry. Completed in 2020, the 520,000 sq ft building comprises a 13-storey north-end office tower, a seven-storey podium for training and library functions, and a 240-pax auditorium component. The building’s multi-layered design challenges conformity in institutional architecture, enticing and exciting within a controlled visual framework.

Situated on a narrow 3.16-acre site, the building’s design cascades rhythmically from the tower to the auditorium, with a stone podium and high columns classically ordered at the podium’s street-facing colonnade. The facade of the tower features a songket-inspired bas-relief screen of bronze louvres beneath which hangs the entrance. The internal spaces are dynamic with a sweeping curved atrium that separates the centre into east and west wings enlivened by bridges, stairs, angled niches, and cantilevered glass discussion boxes.