The National Textile Museum, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

A rare opportunity to deliver the highest standard of showcase designs to match the 114 year old landmark building’s architecture.

Sited within the historic centre of Kuala Lumpur, an 18th century building, conserved and refurbished in late 2008, now houses the National Textile Museum of Malaysia. The building itself is a remarkable centre-piece of landmark architecture and is flanked by the Sultan Abdul Samad building and the Dayabumi building, which sits diagonally across the Royal Selangor Club and Dataran Merdeka Building on the perimeter of the Merdeka Square. Once the KTM’s Railway Administration Building until 1917, the building was later handed over to the Selangor Public Works Department, to the Malaysian Central Bank and later, the High Court.

The 114 year old building was designed and completed in an Indo-Saracenic Revival architecture by English architect, Arthur Benison Hubback in 1905. Opened to the public on 9th January 2010, the National Textile Museum displays a rare collection of textiles as well as gold and jewelry ornaments from the multi-ethnic communities of Malaysia.

Space for permanent exhibitions were divided into four galleries within the 2 1/2 storied structure. With a combined area of 3146 m2, the team from Trika was brought in to design and install the museum showcases. However, the project team later discovered that the massive weight-load of the 3.5m high museum cases had exceeded the permissible weight loading for the old building on its second floor.

Reinforcement works to the second floor to install large weight-bearing steel beams took an extra year and by this time, the curatorial plans for the museum had morphed to include a fabulous collection of gold and precious jewelry that necessitates several more high-security cases. Besides two-stage, double-locking ABLOY lock systems, special features such as embedded glass vibration sensors and alarms were specified for these Ramses look-down cases.

The showcase security standards were specified to protect, secure and display Malaysia’s finest gold and silver ornaments.

Within the cavernous main galleries on the two floors, Trika installed their range of large wall-mounted Cyrus cases with concealed light headers along the perimeter walls. Cyrus case system allows for continuous spans of frameless glass cases to be constructed against walls or as free-standing. Using only fibre optic lighting, this is crucial for the conservation and protection of fragile and light sensitive items such as these textiles on display. A series of Ramses look-down cases were specifically developed to address the high protection and security levels required for a rare collection of historic native jewelry, gold and silver ornaments. The team from Trika introduced locks that were re-tweaked to incorporate double-locking, steel bolting ABLOY locking systems. Working alongside the curatorial team of conservators and mounters, Trika showcase team had to purpose-build custom display solutions for the hanging display into these cases. Incorporating some of the many firsts into these display cases, Trika proudly presented their expertise within the hallowed space of this historic building in central Kuala Lumpur.