YTL BB Tower

In the centre of one of the most luxurious business and tourist districts in Kuala Lumpur a new skyscraper rises to a height of 179 m: the YTL BB Tower, with glass façades and light, elegant lines. The building, which occupies a reduced portion of land, features pointed portions resembling crystals. It was designed by the KPF architecture studio of New York and comes with technologies and measures to collect and recycle rainwater, reduce energy consumption, and make it highly energy efficient. So, it came as no surprise when the project obtained GBI Gold rating certification from the Green Building Index, a classification system adopted in Malaysia to evaluate the sustainability of buildings.

The 42 floors of the tower are the new head office of YTL, a Malaysian colossus with 1,000 employees and 12 million clients operating in the infrastructures, construction, hospitality, cement production, real estate and e-commerce sectors in various Asian countries (Singapore, Japan and China), the UK and Australia. 

The employees of the company, who previously worked in 12 different buildings in Kuala Lumpur, are now able to work from one location in a series of “office-boutiques” at the intersection of some of the busiest roads in the Jalan Bukit Bintang district which, thanks to the tower, has now been enhanced with this new “icon” of the city.

The lower floors of the skyscraper include a large entrance hall and a conference suite embellished with a large garden, while the offices are located on the upper floors.

For both environments construction materials were chosen that would guarantee excellent mechanical characteristics, durability and a pleasant aesthetic effect. These included complete Mapei systems which were selected for the installation of large format floor and wall ceramic tiles, both internally and externally.

Going into detail, because of its workability and perfect adhesion to substrates, it was decided to use                      KERABOND PLUS improved adhesion cementitious adhesive with extended open time to bond 300 mm x 600 mm and 600 mm x 600 mm floor tiles, such as those in the large lobby on the ground floor.

With the KERABOND T+ISOLASTIC 50 system, on the other hand, which consists of non-slip cementitious adhesive and elasticising latex additive produced and distributed locally by Mapei Malaysia, 1200 mm x 600 mm tiles were bonded to the walls of the lifts and the lobby. When mixed with adhesive, the latex helps improve its adhesion to substrates and its deformability and waterproofing properties.

KERAFLEX MAXI S1 deformable, non-slip cementitious adhesive with extended open time, meanwhile, was chosen to bond 600 mm x 600 mm ceramic tiles on the rest of the internal walls. This product comes with Low Dust technology and, thanks to its high thixotropy, is particularly suitable for bonding large format ceramic and stone tiles: it may be applied on vertical surfaces without slumping or allowing tiles to slip, including heavy and large format tiles.

What is more, KERAFLEX MAXI S1 is a “champion” of sustainability: it features very low emission of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), is certified EMICODE EC1^Plus by the German association GEV and helps obtain important credits for obtaining the LEED certification. So, using this product also played a part in reducing the environmental impact of the entire project.

The biggest challenge for this project was the installation of large-size ceramic floor and wall tiles on both internal and external substrates. The team managed to overcome this challenge thanks to KERABOND PLUS improved cementitious adhesive with extended open time, which was used to bond ceramic tiles measuring 300 mm x 600 mm and 600 mm x 600 mm. For the lift walls in the lobby, the need to guarantee sound, durable installation of 1200 mm x 600 mm tiles was met by using the KERABOND T+ ISOLASTIC 50* adhesive system.