Kedah Digital Library

The Kedah Digital Library (KDL) celebrates the future-forward concept of “Library Without Books” and redefining the role of a State-owned Public Library as Learning Hub and Community Node. The project emerged as a result of Adaptive Re-use of an existing 2-storey Colonial Bungalow Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman Building in Alor Setar, in a site of total area spanning 2.13 acres.

The former Memorial Tunku Abdul Rahman Building is an iconic landmark within the immediate milieu, rich with heritage value and charm. Original site is nestled in a lush green lung adjacent Alor Setar’s largest urban park and now rejuvenated with a new life as a Digital Library in a park-garden ambience.

KDL’s development is divided into two (2) distinct and successive sections, comprising: -

a) Section 1 – ‘The Tunku Mansion’

which involved the refurbishment of the existing historic Anglo-Indian bungalow – hereafter referred to as ‘The Tunku Mansion’ – as the first immediate parcel roll-out to benefit the neighbouring community.

Key spaces include private reading and study spaces, kids digital play room, discussion rooms, a renewed garden and parking spaces.

b) Section 2 – ‘New Annex’

which entailed the addition of a New Annex building as an extension to The Tunku Mansion – with multi-purpose event halls, amphitheatre, teleconference facilities and most importantly – a contemporary new Digital Gallery featuring virtual exhibition of notable Kedah leaders.

Crafting Contemporary Digital Libraries with Historical Significance

The Implementing Agency of the Project aims to create a holistic conducive environment that encourages interaction and collaboration; and as a place where knowledge is obtained via the use of information and communication technology.

This project brief eliminates the necessity all physical forms of data or information (commonly books, displays, hard copies) by moving it to the virtual realms. It ultimately led us on a search for better ways to design and create varied physical experiences for this modern lifestyle to take place.

We made strong attempts to excel in the following areas along the entire project implementation (to be further elaborated in the following pages): -

1. Preservation, Integration & Reimagination of Historical Intents

   • Repurposing historic structures with resilient design for new public usage.

   • Preserving excellency of previous purposes and adapting them into parts of a larger, newer brief. For instance, moving the previous traditional memorial gallery to a redesigned space in the New Annex.

   • Reimagining how new age information is consumed by current society and integrating them into building design. Eg. virtual exhibition and borderless galleries.

2. Strategic Planning of Project Roll-Out / Re-activation of Urban Nodes

   • Phasing projects sensitively for early public utilisation and simultaneously carry out new construction.

   • Re-activating deteriorating urban nodes with new functions, one building at a time.

3. Sensitive & Holistic Addition of New Wing

   • The Tunku Mansion remained as the dominant visual arrival point of the new altered massing, enhanced by a new central garden that ties the old and the new – a nod of respect to its formal and heritage values.

   • The roof line and building height of the New Annex were controlled to not overpower the existing mansion.

4. Physical and Implied Connections between the Old and New + Outdoor and Indoor

   • Designing new spaces with the myriad concepts of transparency, opacity, solids and voids, edges, and boundaries.