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M+, Hong Kong. Gift of Architects Team 3, 2015, © Architects Team 3 Pte Ltd, Singapore
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Architects Team 3 建築三人小組
Photographs, Bank Negara building (1969), Penang, Malaysia 馬來西亞檳城馬來西亞國家銀行大樓（1969年）照片
[circa 1969]
The Malayan Architects Co-partnership designed the Penang branch of Bank Negara, Malaysia’s central bank, in the mid-to-late 1960s. The project marks a significant moment of activity and identity building for the bank: established in 1959 and based in Kuala Lumpur, Bank Negara began issuing the Malaysian dollar in 1967, replacing a pre-independence currency shared with Singapore and Brunei.
As shown in the three exterior photographs that make up this file, the blocky concrete structure occupies a corner site near the waterfront in George Town. Regular, slightly rounded columns punctuate its facade, connecting taller lower levels clad mostly in dark glass with the floors above. The building’s main structural elements are clearly delineated. A simple overhang covers a recessed entrance along Lebuh Light, the city’s oldest road. Masked by a pattern of thin, closely spaced vertical sunshades, the three upper levels step outward as they rise. This staggered profile wraps the building in continuous shade and breaks up its apparent weight.
The project was one of the last designed by the Malayan Architects Co-partnership; its successor firm, Architects Team 3, later realised several private and government bank headquarters in Singapore and Malaysia. In its distinctive, unornamented exterior and attention to climate and context, Bank Negara is representative of the brutalist style adapted to the concerns of the postcolonial period.
As shown in the three exterior photographs that make up this file, the blocky concrete structure occupies a corner site near the waterfront in George Town. Regular, slightly rounded columns punctuate its facade, connecting taller lower levels clad mostly in dark glass with the floors above. The building’s main structural elements are clearly delineated. A simple overhang covers a recessed entrance along Lebuh Light, the city’s oldest road. Masked by a pattern of thin, closely spaced vertical sunshades, the three upper levels step outward as they rise. This staggered profile wraps the building in continuous shade and breaks up its apparent weight.
The project was one of the last designed by the Malayan Architects Co-partnership; its successor firm, Architects Team 3, later realised several private and government bank headquarters in Singapore and Malaysia. In its distinctive, unornamented exterior and attention to climate and context, Bank Negara is representative of the brutalist style adapted to the concerns of the postcolonial period.
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