Suleiman Court was the first high-rise

apartment building An apartment (American English, Canadian English), flat (British English, Indian English, South African English), tenement ( Scots English), or unit (Australian English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) ...

in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The building was constructed at the direction of Malaysia's first

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Tunku Abdul Rahman Tunku Abdul Rahman (8 February 19036 December 1990), commonly referred to as Tunku, was a Malaysian statesman who served as prime minister of Malaysia from 1957 to 1970. He previously served as the only chief minister of Federation of Malaya ...

, who intended the Courts to provide

affordable housing Affordable housing is housing which is deemed affordable to those with a household income at or below the median, as rated by the national government or a local government by a recognized housing affordability index. Most of the literature on ...

. The Courts was named after Suleiman bin Abdul Rahman, then incumbent Minister of Interior & Justice, who had watched over the progress of the Housing Trust for 8 years since its inception. The Courts were built in 1957, as the

Federation of Malaya Malaya, officially the Federation of Malaya, was a country in Southeast Asia from 1948 to 1963. It succeeded the Malayan Union and, before that, British Malaya. It comprised eleven states – nine Malay states and two of the Straits Settleme ...

neared official independence from the United Kingdom. Tunku Abdul Rahman had hoped for the building to be not just complete, but already occupied, in time for Hari Merdeka (the official proclamation of independence) on 31 August; however, the first apartments were not occupied until February 1958. The three blocks of the Courts (Block A, Block B, and Block C) were located on Batu Road (now Jalan Tuanku Abdul Rahman), and had 295 apartments between them. They were demolished in 1986, to make room for the

Sogo is a department store chain with a significant presence in Japan. It operates a network of branches in various countries and has a long history dating back to 1830 when it was founded in Osaka by Ihei Sogō. The company is known for its retail ...

shopping complex.

References

200 former residents of Suleiman Court reminisce at gathering
– '' The Star'' 21 August 2007

External links

Suleiman Courts Residents website
{{coord missing, Malaysia Buildings and structures in Kuala Lumpur Residential skyscrapers in Malaysia Skyscrapers in Kuala Lumpur Demolished buildings and structures in Malaysia Buildings and structures demolished in 1986 Buildings and structures completed in 1958 20th-century architecture in Malaysia Former skyscrapers