Petronas Twin Towers

The design of the twin towers represents national unity and harmony among the diversity groups in Malaysia. The building complex is located in downtown Kuala Lumpur and houses offices, living quarters, and restaurants. There is a shopping mall on the bottom floors.

The tower's foundation design is based on simple Islamic geometric forms of two interlocking squares creating a shape of eight-pointed stars. Rounding off the sharp edges are scallop-like semicircles to soften the outer look of the building. This extra space also serves to increase the overall usable floor space of the towers.

Unlike the traditional steel design, the building uses super high-strength reinforced concrete which makes it very heavy but can better withstand high wind and most natural or manmade disasters.

After the construction had started, a bridge was added to the design connecting the two buildings half way up so it could be used to channel traffic or in a crisis used as an escape route from one building to the other.

The elevators were built with in a double deck design such that they can serve two floors, odd and even, at the same time in a single trip. I attended a few meetings in the Twin Towers and had to select the correct queue to go to the floor of my choice. Of course, this design also poses a challenge for interfloor travel especially between contiguous floors.

All in all, over 10,000 people live and work there on a regular day. I was quite impressed by the micro-cell telecommunication system where I could maintain an uninterrupted cell phone conversation from the time I entered the underground garage; to the elevator and to the shopping mall level. I later found out that the job was contracted out to a friend of mine from the U.S. now residing in China. Impressive usability.

One interesting fact was that the towers were built by two teams, one from Japan while the other from Korea. Over the years-long construction, they were challenging each other to be the first to reach the top, to set a world tallest building record in a tight schedule, and so I was told.

This is a MUST-SEE when you come to Malaysia. To get to the bridge, you will need to queue up before 8AM to get a visitor pass scheduled later in the day but you will get to see the City and the metropolitan for miles around. You will also meet local folks, school children, and tourists from all over the world.

Very impressive!!