Tabung Haji Tower

The headquarters as it stands in the time of humans

The Tabung Haji Tower is a 38-storey, 151.83 m office skyscraper and is the headquarters of Malaysian Hajj Pilgrims Fund Board in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The tower, designed by architect Hijjas Kasturi, was completed in 1984. The building back then was not only the tallest building in Malaysia but was also hailed as the highest Muslim edifice of the world, a fitting name as the company inside was responsible for facilitating savings for the pilgrimage to Mecca through investment in Shariah-compliant vehicles. The building has a circular ground plan which flares at both its base and top, and is supported on five massive columns which line the entire height of the structure. Each column, in its hollow, includes a peripheral air conditioning system serving one fifth of each floor area. The building's forecourt is punctuated by the mosque's tapering dome surmounted by a round blue-colored finial and by a free-standing minaret ending in a blue-colored pointed finial. This tower is one of the few buildings in Kuala Lumpur that incorporates islamic architecture into its final design, but in a life after people, for how long will this structure keep its firm ground, or fall like the rest of the others?

1 day after people: Having to endure the constant noise of traffic jams from the adjacent Jalan Tun Razak, the Tabung Haji Tower can finally have some peace and quiet, as it realizes humans have vanished for good. On the helipad, an empty Bell 206 JetRanger helicopter now sits alone without a crew, waiting for Mother Nature to inevitably finish it off. For now, everything seems normal for the tower, until night falls. As the tower glows up in the dark in a sea of white, the power plants across the city fail one by one, creating permanent electricity disruptions and turning off the tower's lights for good. The air conditioners now stop running, as the tower slowly regains room temperature.

1 month after people: The tower's eerily silence is now finally broken as birds from the north are flying towards Kuala Lumpur. The uniquely-shaped Tabung Haji Tower proves to be popular amongst the birds, as hundreds settle on its helipad and inside the helicopter as well. Birds also bring in seeds, which from the constant storms of the city, start to grow within 2 weeks. For now, they are very small plants, but that will no longer be the case very soon.

5 months after people: A massive downpour created from a cyclone from Sri Lanka now wrecks complete havoc upon the city, as the nearby rivers jump their banks and create a river surge heading for the Tabung Haji Tower, despite having its lobby's furnishings and the abandoned parked motorcycles swept away by the current, the floodwaters are not as high as the nearby tunnel section of Jalan Tun Razak takes in the raging current, drowning itself in the process. Despite this, a few abandoned cars from other roads break the windows and into the lobby of the tower, as well as the tiny Tabung Haji Mosque adjacent to it. The mosque itself was not built to survive against a wave of water higher than itself, and it is destroyed by the flood. The helicopter, despite having a weight of more than 700kg, struggles to stay on the helipad as fierce winds battle the tower, causing it to sway as well. All these combined cause considerable damage to the tower, but the headquarters of Tabung Haji can still take it.

1 year after people: The seeds that were once growing as minor plants have now grown to the size of small trees, turning the helipad of the tower into a mini-jungle. Meanwhile, the earlier storms cause some window panels to break off from the swaying, allowing curious birds to wander inside and build nests inside of the tower, also bringing in their seeds which grow from the favorable conditions of the tower. Meanwhile, the white paint of the tower is now starting to fade away, creating a light gray appearance on the Tabung Haji Tower's exterior. The tower's black windows also start to become immensely filthy from dust, as window cleaners are now no longer coming up.

10 years after people: The window hinges are suffering from the effects of severe corrosion, and they snap off. This causes windows all across the towers to become loss and become gravity's stress relief toy, as they plummet a high fall to their death. Meanwhile, the lobby has also become infested with trees and greenery, while vines also start to grow downwards from the tower's helipad. This isn't even all that Mother Nature is throwing at the tower, as another storm passes over the building. While the storm snaps off the antenna of KL Tower and destroys the Kota Darul Ehsan Arch, a lightning bolt strikes the middle floors of the building, cracking the structure, setting the floor in flames and burning any plants growing in them. The poisonous fumes from the ashes also make their way around the structure via the empty air vents, spreading poison gas across the tower and killing a quarter of the bird population from suffocation, but they will remain and return despite the accident.

50 years after people: The tower has now been covered in a layer of vines and greenery, while the lobby has now become inaccessible as massive jungle trees block the entrance. Most interiors of the structure have been destroyed from weathering, while the exterior support columns are deteriorating and having to support heavier loads with weakening columns. The tower has finally realized that despite the problems neglect has given it, it has also helped to ensure its survival. But its now too late, as Mother Nature is now the only thing that is left.

75 years after people: The helicopter on the rooftop has fallen apart from rust, disappearing on the jungle-infested helipad, which collapses into the floor under soon after as the weight of the helipad and falling helicopter is simply too much for the columns to endure. The intricate Islamic patterns on the upper floors have also started to crack and collapse below. Most of the tower's windows have been destroyed, while all the interiors have suffered from the effects of extreme weathering and humidity. Meanwhile, some trees on the lobby have grown so big that they punch through the floor above and continue growing, helping to alleviate the heavy loads of the tower and prolonging its survival, for now.

140 years after people: The Tabung Haji Tower has reached its end. 14 decades of weathering has caused one of the 4 major support columns to break apart and collapse into the ground, in a similar fashion to the Alor Setar Tower 360km away in Kedah. This makes the floor load unbalanced for the other 3, and they fail at the same time and break apart, creating a cascading collapse of the upper floors into the lower floors of the building and destroying the building altogether. What was once a building to help people get to Mecca for yearly pilgrimages has now vanished in a cloud of smoke, buried underneath a pile of rubble and never to be seen again.