A Community-Minded Creative Hub in Kuala Lumpur
In Kuala Lumpur’s Kampung Attap neighbourhood, The Zhongshan Building is is a robust independent arts and culture hub in the city
Guatemala-born curator Liza Ho moved to Kuala Lumpur in 2005 as a newly minted finance graduate with a love for art, but it was only once she was settled in the Malaysian capital that she began to pursue this passion, taking up a position at a commercial gallery and then going on to co-found contemporary art platform OUR ArtProjects in 2013 and then The Back Room gallery in 2019.
But it was in between these two ventures that The Zhongshan Building was born. When Ho’s mother-in-law inherited a block of interconnected 1950s shophouses in Kuala Lumpur’s vibrant Kampung Attap neighbourhood (the same block in which she’d grown up), Ho and her husband invited their peers to consider how the space could be developed to serve their creative community. The consensus was, as Ho describes, ‘to establish a safe space for artists and creatives to create, play, experiment, collaborate and dialogue.’
‘Having worked with many artists since 2008, we realised that art spaces and collectives from different art disciplines were segregated, not only geographically but also by disciplines,’ Ho explains. ‘We wanted to bring this community closer, encouraging collaborations and dialogues — and what better place than in KL itself.’
Ho and her husband saw the potential in the row of three four-storey shophouses and were determined to retain the original architecture. They began renovations in 2017, but due to budget constraints were unable to enlist an architect or designer; so, working with contractors directly, they start on their vision to restore the building to its original state, aside from one key structural change: removing the wall that separated two of the connected buildings and making space for a sunny, sociable courtyard.
They then moved into the building, setting up a physical gallery space for OUR ArtProjects and inviting others from the art community to join them at their new address. ‘And that’s how The Zhongshan Building came about,’ Ho says. ‘In the beginning, we invited friends and people we knew who were doing a great job within the culture or arts communities,’ she continues. ‘Then people came knocking on our door and we had the opportunity to choose our tenants. Most of us here are small studios or enterprises, so we took care to ensure the mix of tenants is non-competitive, diverse and is made up of like-minded individuals.’ Now, the top floor is reserved for private studios, while retail and F&B spaces, such as tea shop Kok Far and artisan boulangerie Tommy Le Baker, are found on the ground and first floors. Meandering between the floors and along the corridors, one finds highlights like The Alphabet Press’s bespoke journal atelier and stationery shop ana tomy, cosy bookstore Balai Buku Raya, fono music room, lifestyle concept store Naiise Malaysia, cult coffee shop Piu Piu Piu and Malaysia Design Archive, which researches, records and preserves the history of graphic design in Malaysia.
For Ho, this mix of tenants is reflective of Kuala Lumpur’s broader community. ‘To me, it reflects what the city is about: diversity in many ways and on many levels,’ says Ho. ‘Within the community there are artists, artisans, designers, typographers, musicians, academics, researchers and activists — and they all have their own community too.’ An example Ho cites is a collaboration between typography studio Huruf and the Malaysia Design Archive, where they jointly hosted a talk by Muthu Nedumaran about his work to make Tamil typography available on digital mediums.
Far more than a static retail space, the building has become a dynamic hub in which all tenants are given the freedom to organise their own programming. So far, the building has played host to talks, screenings, workshops, live music shows and exhibitions. ‘All of the spaces are quite modular,’ says Ho. ‘Even the library can be used for life-drawing sessions and the balconies have been used for concerts.’
When asked about her goals for the future, Ho says she hopes The Zhongshan Building will cultivate a sense of freedom of creation and experimentation, and that it will become an ‘incubator for greater things’.
Text / Simone Schultz
Images / Eiffel Chong & Studio Karya
