Recipe for Redemption

‘Recipe for Redemption’ is a gesture towards the rejuvenation of Chinatown in the city of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, also known as Petaling Street through the lens of an architectural performance, giving back to the place and its significant history of being the catalyst for the introduction of the Chinese community into Malaysia through the reinterpretation of the entire site as an opera stage.

It involves the pushing and pulling of iconic food vendors within the street at different scales by translating their own recipes into architecture, converting these standalone stalls into mixed-used extensions of the existing built fabric to become part food stall and part street performance theatre, with strong heritage influences from Cantonese opera, whilst also facilitating the provision of aid to those that are not as fortunate through the act of void metabolism, repurposing redundant and abandoned buildings within the site for shelter, rehabilitation, and food distribution.

The goal is for there to never be a curtain call on Petaling Street, to become a container that is a utilitarian counterpart in its application of existing cultural heritage to inspire a new design language in the revitalisation of Malaysia’s premise of being a multicultural country, the reason I call myself a Malaysian today.