Professional, composed and operationally efficient.
A modern corporate language for Sarawak businesses using controlled timber, charcoal, glass and practical integrated storage.
This style controls colour, pattern and finish — timber tone, cabinet finish, stone pattern, metal, glass and hardware. It does not fix your floor plan. Layout, dimensions, openings, circulation, storage and M&E are adapted to your actual property.
This is a corporate finish direction, not one of the five residential design languages. Commercial projects choose a system, not a style — the operating model comes first, the finish second. See Purpose-Fit Commercial
Dark timber against dark stone works for a reason unrelated to taste: an office is lit by artificial light for the whole working day, at levels no home reaches, and mid-tones go grey and flat under 4000K. Depth is what keeps a surface reading as material rather than laminate. It survives the traffic too — a reception counter is touched by every visitor and every staff member arriving, which is a rate of contact no domestic surface sees, and dark, low-movement surfaces absorb that wear instead of recording it.
One approved way to build the Corporate & Commercial language — dark timber and stone on sealed plinths, one base metal finish across the floor, privacy glass banded at seated eye level, with floor, paint, blinds, lighting and acoustics to the ELS requirement.
| Component | Route | ELS specification | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cabinetry & joinery | ALUMAX | Walnut, smoked oak or controlled medium timber on a SEALED aluminium or stone plinth (contract cleaners wet-mop daily; a timber base wicks water and swells within two years).ALUMAX code confirmed on the finishes catalogue. | Primary |
| Pantry sink run (wet) | ALUMAX | ACP or aluminium substrate on the sink run (no cooking but no extract, and AC is off Friday to Monday — it meets water without drying); P6 board only to genuinely dry runs.ALUMAX code confirmed on the finishes catalogue. | Conditional |
| Reception / meeting top | ALUMAX | Honed or leathered dark stone (polished records every water ring and fingerprint under reception downlights); cable routes fixed at carcass-drawing stage.ALUMAX code confirmed on the finishes catalogue.Approved equivalent: A specialist-supplied honed dark quartz of the same depth is an accepted equivalent. | Supporting |
| Metal & hardware | ALUMAX | Matte black, graphite or dark bronze aluminium — one base finish shared across meeting and executive seating (chrome legs against graphite read as two projects).ALUMAX code confirmed on the finishes catalogue. | Accent-only |
| Glass & partitions | ALUMAX | Clear, smoked or fluted privacy glass; flute or band the meeting-room glass at SEATED eye level (staff avoid a room they cannot sit in unseen) while keeping the borrowed daylight.ALUMAX code confirmed on the finishes catalogue. | Conditional |
| Floor | Specialist trade | Dark or mid porcelain, 600×1200mm or 600×600mm, matt, rectified, R10 minimum (R11 to entry and wet), heavy commercial-traffic rating (PEI ≥4), ≤3mm grout. | Supporting |
| Wall paint | Specialist trade | Charcoal, warm grey or off-white — feature LRV 15–25, general LRV 55–70; matt or eggshell washable, low-VOC, scrubbable to contract-cleaning. | Sample hold |
| Window blinds | Specialist trade | Solar-control or Low-E glass plus external shading where the facade allows; chain-operated roller blinds for the last hour of sun only — no fabric drapes (contract cleaning never washes them). | Supporting |
| Lighting | Specialist trade | One colour temperature in 3500–4000K and one CRI (≥90) across the whole floor; a vertical bias so faces read on video calls; never a downlight directly above a monitor. | Conditional |
| Acoustic treatment | Specialist trade | One absorbent plane in every enclosed meeting room — dark stone, glass and plasterboard make an acoustically hard box; without it video calls clip and voices carry to the open floor. | Conditional |
Where the original selection is unavailable or commercially unsuitable, an approved equivalent must match it on every axis above. The installer must never choose an equivalent on site — a substitution is subject to ELS design and specification review and client approval.
ELS selects, specifies and coordinates materials to one approved design direction. Products supplied by ALUMAX are quoted, supplied and warranted by ALUMAX. Products and works supplied by specialist trades remain under the respective specialist's quotation and warranty. Any proposed substitution is subject to ELS design and specification review and client approval.
Final materials depend on technical suitability, moisture zone and current availability.
Starts with ALUMAX's preferred entry-value cabinet platform where appropriate, with other materials specified where the space, exposure or product requires them.
Upgraded material construction, hardware and detailing with greater durability and refinement.
Custom detailing, geometry, integration and specialist construction for a more exclusive, made-to-measure result.
Public prices for selected hot-selling products are shown on ALUMAX.
Hold one colour temperature in the 3500K–4000K band and one CRI specification across the whole floor; a 3000K "lounge" reception inside the same sightline as workstations reads as a lighting fault, not a mood. The work is vertical: faces need light for video calls, and screens need it kept off them. A downlight directly above a monitor lands as reflected glare in every seat behind it.
Sarawak office floors are usually taken as-built with whatever glazing the shoplot or tower came with, so the west elevation is inherited rather than chosen, and the driver is air-conditioning load, not privacy. Solve it at the glass — solar-control or low-e, with external shading where the facade allows — and let chain-operated roller blinds handle only the last hour of afternoon sun. Avoid fabric drapes: a space cleaned under contract gets floors mopped and curtains never washed. Keep fluted glass internal.
Task chairs are the most numerous loose object on the floor and the one most often carried over from the old office. Specify one chair, one colour, across every workstation; a floor of mismatched chairs cancels the joinery from the door. Meeting and executive seating may differ but must share the base finish — chrome legs against graphite aluminium read as two projects. Upholstery stays charcoal, never a second brown.
The finish follows the palette, so the choice is only Essential or Bespoke.
Why Matte black: Black aluminium windows · Black-framed sliding doors · Black appliances, sink or tap · Black lighting · Dark stone countertops
Corporate & Commercial decides colour, pattern and finish. Depth is separate — it is built, not chosen — so ELS matches it layer by layer against your actual ceiling height, walls and floor.
Depth comes from a plane change — shadow does the work — or a material change — contrast does the work.
Do both at one junction with no functional reason and they cancel: the eye stops reading either.
One material, a level change — the shadow reads the form.
Two materials on one plane — contrast draws the line.
Different material AND a level change together — only where a real boundary changes: wet/dry, indoor/outdoor, public/private.
Default to one material and earn depth from drops, coves and shadow gaps — never a busy patchwork overhead. Height is the hard constraint: services claim the void before the design does.
The habitable-room legal minimum, with comfort headroom kept below every dropped feature.
Industry standardWhat you start with — before any services are run.
ELS field guidanceAir-conditioning claims the void first; the design works with what is left.
Industry standardThe gradient the AC drain line needs to run — it sets where the ceiling can sit.
Industry standardDepth to hide the light source and throw an even wash, not a hot line.
Design recommendationThe reveal that separates ceiling from wall as a crisp, intentional line.
Design recommendationSarawak's high humidity sags thin board on wide centres; this spec holds flat.
ELS field guidanceWe askOnce air-conditioning and services are in, how much ceiling height can we spend on a dropped feature?
Default to one material broken by a reveal or shadow gap. A material change must land on a plane change or a shadow gap — never stop mid-plane, where a finish that just ends reads as unfinished.
Enough shadow to read as a deliberate line, not a gap that looks like a defect.
Design recommendationA reveal or a corner gives the change a reason; a finish that stops in open field looks unfinished.
Design recommendationA flush socket sets the minimum a wall build-up can be — thinner reveals will not clear it.
Industry standardWe askWhere do the material changes fall — and does each one land on a joint we can detail?
Default to a single flat plane and zone with material, not level. A level change is either zero or a proper step (≥ 150 mm) — nothing in between, which trips.
Anything in between is a trip hazard; keep it flat or make it a proper step.
Industry standardA raised zone adds real dead load — the structure has to carry it.
Industry standardTermite country: a raised timber floor is a liability here.
ELS field guidanceHolds water in a level-threshold wet room without a step to trip on.
Industry standardWe askDo we zone this floor by material alone, or is a real step justified — and where does water need holding back?
We grade every strong technical claim by its evidence and review them on a schedule. A manufacturer test is not a design lean — we label which is which rather than dress one up as the other.
Claims last reviewed 2026-07-23. Figures are planning guidance, not warranties — real performance depends on the specific product, its installation and the site's exposure, and is confirmed on the product datasheet and after site measurement.
These are the standard rules and typical Sarawak figures. The exact heights, falls and build-ups are confirmed by your designer against the real slab, services and moisture zones on site.
Specifying a polished dark stone reception top
Use a honed or leathered finish — polished dark stone records every water ring, fingerprint and dust film under reception downlights.
Building the pantry to the same specification as the dry side of a home kitchen
There is no cooking but also no extract, and the air-con is off from Friday evening to Monday — so the sink run meets water without drying out; specify the sink run in a non-absorbent ACP / aluminium substrate, not a moisture-resistant board, and keep P6 board to the genuinely dry runs.
Glazing every meeting room in full-height clear glass
Staff avoid a room they cannot sit in unseen — flute or band the glass at seated eye level and keep the borrowed daylight.
Final materials, finishes and availability depend on technical suitability, moisture zone, load and the current ALUMAX stocking strategy, confirmed on site measurement and approved scope.