The Selangor Turf Club is one of the most modern and extensively equipped race tracks in Asia. The site spread over 103 hectares (255 acres) of infill land previously functioning as an abandoned cut and fill tin mine. The facilities include: racing tracks, a 25,000 capacity grandstand, stables for up to 700 horses, an equine pool, equine clinic as well as public riding facilities with sand and grass training tracks. The main objective was to design a first-class racing facility that would also allow flexibility in use and possible expansion to meet the client's future needs. An efficient security/circulation system was crucial to the workings of the project as well as an energy efficient design that would reduce the operational cost of the scheme.
The grandstand is divided into two parts, the members' section and the public section. The members have their own entrance lobby with an escalator that goes to the top, private section of the building. There they have their own facilities and watch the races in their air-conditioned space (capacity 1'200) or from the twelve executive boxes. On either side of the member's entrance are restaurants that cater to the members but are also open to the public on non-racing days.
The building is a five-storey concrete structure including the basement and steel-framed roof. The long overhang of the roof is for protection from the sun and the rain. The louvres in the roof provide a breeze and cool even flow of air movement. When the temperature of the surrounding environment of a building is higher than inside, the building is designed in such a way that the scale is large in form and height in order to suck in the warm air, this creates a vacuum by pushing the warm air upwards, which consequently provides fluent cool air movement. (The natural movement of air which rises through the building). All the effects were carefully studied. The consistent movement of air and natural ventilation is purely executed here. The main structure is reinforced concrete, the structural frames are with steel outriggers. The roof consists of lattice truss and the floors are of post tension structure.
Source: Aga Khan Trust for Culture
