When I was young, I used to be engrossed with my books which contained architectural marvels around the world. One of these beautiful buildings happened to be the Petronas Towers, which were constructed in the 1990s. The Petronas Towers are the world’s largest pair of twin towers in the world which still stand and they have an observation deck near the top. For decades, I was amazed with the grandeur of the Petronas Towers high above the Kuala Lumpur skyline, to the point where to this day, I still find them more impressive and more synonymous with Kuala Lumpur than the new Merdeka 118, the second tallest building in the world behind the Burj Khalifa.
I learned many things from the visit to the Petronas Towers, one of the most memorable being that from the top, they were designed to look like the Rub al-Hizb when observed from the top down, which is the Islamic eight-pointed star, a symbol which represents peace and unity in the Muslim faith. This is because, as mentioned in previous blog posts, particularly those in Singapore, the predominant religion which the Malaysian people practice happens to be Islam. The Prime Minister of Malaysia, at the time when the Petronas Towers were built, wanted them to be fully representative of the Malaysian people, as he knew the building would dominate the city’s skyline for generations to come. Therefore, he hired a renowned architect to work on the project, who designed the towers with the consent and vision of the Prime Minister.
However, the aspect of the experience that I will retain the most is how I felt looking at the city, finally standing in the architectural wonder which I had done so much research on in the past. To put it simply, it felt completely surreal, similar to walking on the site of a historic battleground or eating at an old tavern, knowing that there were centuries of people that had eaten there long before I did. I can wholeheartedly say that it is a completely different experience researching something than it is actually experiencing it. Even now, looking back, I cannot help but wonder whether this truly happened or not.
