Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur
UR-MU, short for Urban Museum, is a private contemporary art museum in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur, occupying a converted 1950s modernist walk-up apartment block on Jalan Bedara that once held eight two-bedroom flats across four storeys. It was founded by Malaysian architect Dr Tan Loke Mun, a former president of the Malaysian Institute of Architects (2005 to 2007), who began collecting art as a student in Australia in the 1980s and later converted his own property into a museum through his practice, DRTAN LM Architect. UR-MU opened in May 2022 with ten themed galleries and a rooftop sculpture lounge, Made's Garden, dedicated to Tan's late friend, Bali-based landscape designer Pak Made Wijaya. It became the first of three sister venues, followed by Ur-Mu @ The Toffee in 2023 and +N by UR-MU in 2024. In April 2026, the Korea Herald cited UR-MU among the venues driving Kuala Lumpur's expanding museum scene.
1950s
The building is constructed as a modernist walk-up apartment block on Jalan Bedara, Bukit Bintang, comprising eight two-bedroom flats across four storeys, part of a low-density residential pocket in what is now the Golden Triangle.
1980s
Architect Tan Loke Mun begins collecting art while a student at Deakin University in Geelong, Australia, the start of the private collection that later fills UR-MU.
2005-2007
Tan serves as president of the Malaysian Institute of Architects (Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia, PAM).
May 2022
The apartment block reopens as UR-MU (Urban Museum) after conversion by Tan's own practice, DRTAN LM Architect, which added a steel and red brick entrance, a lift, an accessible washroom and a rooftop garden while keeping the original four-storey form. Ten themed galleries open to the public, including Made's Garden, a rooftop sculpture lounge dedicated to Tan's late friend, Bali-based landscape designer Pak Made Wijaya (1953-2016).
2023
Tan opens a second venue, Ur-Mu @ The Toffee, on Jalan Raja Chulan, named after his late pet poodle and built around a 1950s Art Deco heritage space.
August 2024
A third venue, +N by UR-MU, opens in a converted Chinatown shophouse on Jalan Tun H.S. Lee, exhibiting the collection of landscape architect Ng Sek San.
13-18 May 2025
UR-MU holds its first Museum Week across all three venues, offering free admission on 16 May and guided tours of a combined collection of more than 100 artworks.
April 2026
The Korea Herald names UR-MU among the venues driving Kuala Lumpur's 2026 museum expansion, alongside the restored Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad and Seri Negara.
Ten themed galleries
The original flats were opened into a sequence of themed rooms, Sens-Asia, People, Kampung Kita, Power Play, Raksasa, Superheroes, Framing Modernity, Structure, Made's Garden and Sculpture Lounge, each built around a slice of Tan's private collection rather than one continuous exhibition.
The steel and brick entrance
DRTAN LM Architect added a new lobby in industrial steel and red brick with a staggered glazed cubic form, a deliberate contrast with the plain 1950s walk-up behind it, while keeping the building's original scale within the low-rise streetscape.
Made's Garden and the Sculpture Lounge
The rooftop level, added during the conversion, is dedicated to Pak Made Wijaya, the Bali-based landscape designer and friend of Tan who died in 2016. It doubles as a sculpture lounge with a view of Menara Kuala Lumpur.
Lift and accessible washroom retrofit
The original 1950s block had no lift, so DRTAN LM Architect added one serving all floors along with an accessible washroom during the conversion, structural work not normally seen in walk-up apartments of that era.
Jalan Bedara's low-rise streetscape
UR-MU sits on one of the last remaining pockets of low-density 1950s residential architecture inside the Golden Triangle, which is why Tan describes the project as urban regeneration rather than new-build.
UR-MU opened to the public in May 2022 inside a converted 1950s apartment block on Jalan Bedara in Bukit Bintang. It was the first of what later became a three-venue Urban Museum group in Kuala Lumpur.
UR-MU was founded by Dr Tan Loke Mun, a Malaysian architect who served as president of the Malaysian Institute of Architects from 2005 to 2007. He converted the building himself through his practice, DRTAN LM Architect, to display his own private art collection.
The building was a modernist walk-up apartment block dating to the 1950s, originally containing eight two-bedroom flats across four storeys. DRTAN LM Architect preserved the original residential layout while adding a lobby, lift, accessible washroom and rooftop garden during the 2022 conversion.
Tan Loke Mun named it Urban Museum, shortened to UR-MU, after visiting the Anne Frank House and Rembrandt House in Amsterdam and concluding that shorter, single-building gallery visits appealed more to younger audiences than large national museums. He intended it as a source of intellectual stimulation inside central Kuala Lumpur rather than a conventional tourist stop.
The rooftop Made's Garden and Sculpture Lounge is named after Pak Made Wijaya, an Australian-born, Bali-based landscape designer who died in 2016. He was a close friend of founder Tan Loke Mun, and the space was created as a tribute to him.
Yes. After UR-MU Bukit Bintang opened in 2022, Tan Loke Mun opened a second venue, Ur-Mu @ The Toffee on Jalan Raja Chulan, in 2023, followed by a third, +N by UR-MU, in a converted Chinatown shophouse in August 2024.
By 2025, UR-MU's combined venues held more than 100 artworks and objects from Tan Loke Mun's private collection, spread across ten themed galleries at the original Bukit Bintang site alone. The collection draws heavily on Malaysian and wider Southeast Asian art that Tan began acquiring as a student in Australia in the 1980s.
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