KINTA CHRONICLES: UTP (University Technology Petronas) - An Awesome Design In A Former Mining Town

The entrance was a circular building at the end of a long drive in to the campus

I had absolutely no idea that Perak had such a beautiful University ie until I attended an event at University Technology Petronas four years ago.

It was the long drive into the campus and at the end was a circular building that looked like a set from Star Wars but was clearly in the jungle and it took my breath away.

The roof canopy was at least 4 storeys high and long slender white poles seemed to hold up the ceiling giving an unhindered spaciousness below.

The long drive in .....

..unhindered spaciousness as you walk through the entrance... and natural light

...long slender poles 'seemed' to hold up the roof canopy ....

Later when I googled UTP i learnt that this ‘circular block’ was called the Chancellor Complex and the signature building of the campus.

It described the Chancellor Complex as a ”towering building 21 meters high and around 150 meters in diameter. It is separated in two "crescent-shaped" halves , the resource center and the chancellor hall”.

..the complex is separated by two crescent shaped halves

..a covered walkway and open spaces behind the complex

I didn’t get to see the ‘chancellor hall’ but the resource centre , it looked like a library was filled with a four-storey-high display of books, visible through a vast steel and glass façade. It was something to behold.

..the Resource Center which looked like a glorious library

“Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) was established in 1997, and is one of the research universities in the region.

Designed by Foster and Partners it received an Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2007. The overall layout of the new academic complex is in the shape of a five-pointed star made up by five semicircles. It is wholly owned by Petroliam Nasional Berhad (PETRONAS), Malaysia’s oil and gas multinational corporation".

An overview of UTP ..pulled from its website .. looks like 450 hectares

The university site is located 1 km after Tronoh, a once upon a time tin mining town in the Kinta Valley in Perak and its campus is set within a 450 hectare site of jungle in the township of Seri Iskandar.

From the entrance I could see through to the garden on the other side. I was amazed at the of amount of open space.

..the spaciousness of its grounds .....

Every step that I took in the building was wonderful. The spaciousness, the canopied walkways, the gardens and the entire complex, it seemed to be integrated and their library was breath taking.