Amy Liang; The Mastermind Behind Klang Valley’s Famous Picturesque Cafes

Earning herself the title of renowned café designer, Amy Liang, the founder of Cocokacang, is one of the most sought-after designers for her astounding talent in creating picturesque cafes. Her projects are widely recognised primarily due to the unique interior concepts that unite natural elements with simple, clean-line ambience. 

Since its inception in 2015, Cocokacang has been regularly featured in local media and received wide recognition. Amy Liang founded the firm as a solo proprietor, embracing mostly architecture, interior, and furniture design in its projects, with a primary concentration on commercial projects. The firm’s name innately embodies the nature of her family business. Paying homage to her parents’ coconut business in Perak, she picked the word coco and gave the nut a Malay twist, naming her company Cocokacang. 

Amy Liang, a graduate of The One Academy, trained as an interior architect at Juteras Design Workshop, where she mastered the fundamentals of architecture. Although she has yet to be a trained architect, her work experience has helped her carve a name for herself in the field due to her scrupulous ability to tie the designs of her projects to the historical origins of the vicinity. 

One of her noteworthy creations is the well-known Breakfast Thieves café at Paper Plates in the former Art Printing Works warehouse in Jalan Riong, Bangsar. Breakfast Thieves is a widely recognised Melbourne café that branched out to Malaysia, opening its first franchise at Paper Plates. Amy Liang’s first perception after analysing the space was to merge the culture of an Australian neighbourhood café with that of a 65-year-old former commercial printing mill.

The rectangular building’s 6,400 sq ft floor has an open layout and is flooded with natural light. With its extended steps working as built-in seats for the garden, the eatery was slightly elevated so that patrons could sit and enjoy the view in the alfresco area.

During an interview with Amy Liang, she stated that when she designed Paper Plate and Breakfast Thieves, she made certain that the place was saturated with historical features. As an example, the majority of the cafe’s furniture is made of wood in order to pay homage to the fact that Bangsar was formerly a rubber plantation.

Many old warehouse features, such as the columns and ceiling trusses, were maintained, and the pieces of machinery used at the printing mill were extracted and used at the bar counter, built-in furnishings and lighting. She also worked on the garden dining belt, which divides the building and offers patrons easy access to Pocket Park.

Next, the focal point of this eatery is its huge window placed next to the cashier, Amy Liang regarded this as the communication window, a medium for customers to connect and catch a glimpse of its interiors before stepping in to dine in. She also intentionally placed the entryway to the café at the side of the building so that people walk around to the door to see that there is more to APW than what meets the eye in this café.

Her ideal concept for design centers’ around the motive to restore old spaces and create breathtaking views with ample light from mother nature.

In addition to working on design projects, Amy Liang also curated her stackable wooden furniture, that can be used as a side table or a cabinet, and inventive metal hangers formed from rings from lampshades. However, the exorbitant expenses associated with domestic manufacturing and the rivalry posed by larger home decor vendors have dissuaded her from extensively exploring furniture design. But she still creates meticulous, hand-crafted furniture for all of Cocokacang’s regionally finished projects to add a little personal touch to projects.

Amy is a laser-focused designer who knows exactly what she wants and how she wants it delivered. Her designs’ clear ambigoius qualities were the driving force behind their seamless rise to the spotlight. With her naturalist and artistic perspective on whatever she undertakes it is quite evident that she has big plans brewing ahead for Cocokacang in the near future!

If you want to take a look at some of the outstanding projects she has in the works, head over to her Instagram page here!