Penang Bay Competition

Contest for ideas about the Penang Bay project. Malaysia

Rethinking Penang's inner city in an era of disruption Fast technological advances are bringing about significant changes.

Just as the car transformed our cities, computers transformed our way of working and smart phones gave way to a new digital economy, our proposal is inspired on the idea of developing a new way of life, based on how we work, how we want to live and how we will move forward.

After an in-depth analysis of the Penang Bay, we concluded both cities, Georgetown and Butterworth, lack direct contact with their sea coast. For this reason, we plan to take advantage of the recovery of natural aquatic, cultural and economic life to achieve a new, healthier and more sustainable way of living, and to foster a complete interaction between people and new social and technological patterns.

A new profile will be developed alongside the waterfront with the construction of a large bay that will host a new way of life. People will move about freely - the area is car-free. Vehicles and people will be set apart by means of different levels - a lower level for car circulation and an upper level for free movement of people, thus achieving a maximum pollution reduction.

The project includes large pedestrian promenades for both cities through public parks, bike paths, wet berths and a major urban-commercial base to give life to the places during long hours, day and night. A low occupancy of buildings in contact with the ground frees up floors and provides recreational spaces for citizens.

Through the creation of new bays, we will be able to gain an important leisure beachfront for the citizens. An intelligent mobility network connects the bay with the peripheral city, creating an alternative to the traditional planning based on automobile mobility.

Original spaces for education, innovation and leisure encourage interaction between people inspiring new ideas, mixed-use buildings with landscaped balconies which extend the interior to the exterior. Two symbolic buildings in Georgetown mark a Regional Landmark with a view to receiving worldwide recognition, a 600m high mixed-use tower building (the highest in Malaysia) looms majestically over the entire bay acting as a lighthouse. An important circular-shaped hotel tops the tip of the end of the bay route facing the entrance to the city.

On the coast of Butterworth, we have designed maritime islands as a new seafront built linearly, generating new beaches, which in turn can be added lately as the growing city demands them. On the coast and the islands, we have also generated a new park that is flanked by a series of mixed-use buildings and houses looking onto the sea.

A large sports center, with an important stadium, stands on one of the islands, giving Butterworth its identity and competing with its peer building on the opposite coast. For both cities we propose office buildings, homes, equipment and services which will coexist in order to generate a lively and dynamic city all year round and at all hours. Typologies ranging from 7-storey buildings to 150 to 200m high towers will become the general scheme. A two-level commercial area, green facades and terraces, rainwater recovery and the supply and use of renewable energy will define our contribution to environmental preservation. We propose an artificial coral chain that runs along both coasts to recover the local maritime life.