Industrial Interior Design in Malaysia

Ng Sek San is a Malayasian landscape architect, his collective works straddle the hard, tactile world of architecture and the soft pliable world of landscape architecture seamlessly. He trained in civil engineering before studying landscape architecture in New Zealand, and has practiced solely as the latter for the past 21 years, of which the last 13 years have been on his own in partnership with Caroline Lau. 

Under "Seksan Design", most of their famous projects had featured modernity and industrial design with a tinge of the environment. Ng Sek San likes to leave some of his structure at its original raw state believing it has its own beauty within. He also considers the harmonious relationship between man and environment.

In terms of personality, Ng Sek San does not like being photographed even during interviews. In terms of materiality, he incorporated the interplay of grainy, earthy wood furniture and metal finishings in the space to create the raw and industrial look. His designs are surrounded by the rustic setting of brick and concrete walls, and pretty plants, or even eccentric looking furnitures.

Some of his projects featuring industrial designs are:

Sekeping Victoria, Georgetown, Penang. 

Sekeping Victoria Penang is famous for its cafe and accommodation is provided as well. While maintaining the heritage feel in its design, Sek San has managed to give off industrial look (the cement floor is left as it is) with a mixture of modernity. (modern materials used: the wired chairs)

Sekeping Hong Keng, Ipoh.

 Sekeping Kong Heng, in the charming old town of Ipoh, is the latest addition to the Sekeping family of retreats. It is located in a 3 storey neo-classical building which also houses a famous coffee shop of the same name on the ground floor that serves great coffee and the best local dishes in town. All effort has been made to preserve as much of the character of the existing building as possible in contrast to the surrounding new architectural interventions. New architectural inventions as in appreciating the rawness of the existing structure of the building and used it to its best advantage.

Sekeping Tenggiri, Bangsar, KL.

Sekeping Tenggiri in Bangsar looks like a house that’s stagnated at the final stage of its construction – unpainted concrete and brick walls. The paintings furnishing the untreated walls and the mirror hung over the bare bathroom wall betray the illusion however; it’s not an unfinished building, it is, rather, a bold proponent of an unabashedly austere simplicity. Making all the more coherent the honest, rustic charm that Sekeping Tenggiri strives for are the timber accents and the liberal use of glass to allow an abundant amount of natural light to flood in. Even the exposed roof structure (as shown in the second  picture) is used to enhance the industrial look. 

Sekeping Serendah Warehouse, Rawang, Selangor. 

Sekeping Serendah is a private retreat attempting to tread lightly on the land. The very transparent and open sheds celebrate the beauty of the natural environment surrounding them. The sheds are intentionally kept basic and free from lavishness. Its simplicity can also be seen through the usage of minimal industrial look materials: unpolished cement floors and the mixture of black structural steel and dark brown timber.

Other than that, there are two more famous cafes in Kuala Lumpur that has strongly projected industrial style interior design in my opinion:

Bean Brothers, Sunway Damansara

Obvious usage of cement floors, unconcealed ceiling, unpainted brick walls and many steel structural frames. 

Acme Bar and Coffee, Troika, KL

Obvious usage of steel structural frames (even for the chairs) and the toilet is also purpotedly made to look rustic, white brick walls.