Heritage building conservation in Malaysia

1. Architecture Conservation [ARC60703]
Project 1: Essay Writing
HERITAGE BUILDING CONSERVATION IN MALAYSIA:
ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
Name: Cha Yun Xian
Student ID: 0322048
Tutor: Mr. Azim Sulaiman
Date: 12th
October, 2017

2. When the word “conservation” is being raised, people often relates it to the act
of protecting, sustaining and preserving directly without having a second thought. It is
true that conservation refers to the action of protecting something important and
meaningful from the ravages of time and nature disasters. However, conservation is
not just about carrying out the physical actions, but also developing the mindset of
appreciation of art and history, culture and society. It is important to truly understand
the value of heritage and embrace the remains that we decide to preserve, especially
in the field of architecture conservation.
Conserving heritage buildings is not about renovating old buildings, but to
remain the features of the buildings and adapt it to its ever-changing environment.
Thus, the practice of architecture conservation has become more challenging,
especially in developing countries, including Malaysia, where the growth of economic
and population are intensified. Throughout these years, the process of conserving
historical buildings in Malaysia is often challenged by a number of issues in various
aspects, such as technical, environmental, organizational, financial and human issues.
Many of the heritage buildings in Malaysia have been left neglected with an
unknown background for more than a decade in the rapid growing city. To conserve
these abandoned buildings, one of the major issues that leads to difficulty in
identification is the absence of important technical data, such as original drawings. An
example of heritage building that has faced such technical issues during its
conservation process is the Art Gallery of Kedah. The Art Galley of Kedah was built in
1912 to house various state government departments during that period. Its Moorish
architecture style with a grandiose façade has turned it into the earliest modern
building in Kedah, hence strengthened the historical footprint of the state. Thus, the
building has been gazette under the Antiquities Act 1976 as National Heritage under
National Museum to conserve and preserve for tourism purposes.
When the conservation project first started, major and minor issues were
encountered at different stages. First, there is a shortage of capable expertise and
man-power within the authorities’ organization and the industry to assist the
conservator in operation. The inability and miscommunication of these organizations
often lead to unwanted difficulty in defining the scope of work and time management.

3. Second, the absence of important data such as building specifications measurement
has caused the overall conservation process to be laborious and time consuming.
Without the previous record on construction technology and materials, identification
and assimilation of old and new technology have consequently become a more difficult
task. This issue has led to the supply of equivalent materials and resources could not
be determined accurately, hence, hampered the estimation of overall project cost. As
rehabilitation or preservation of adaptation works demands high quality workmanship
and requires experienced craftsmen, shortage of original materials and unavailability
of using the original technology may affect the building quality as well as not complying
with the general principle of rehabilitation works.
The reason for the many issues above is because current professionals in the
construction industry are generally not trained to supervise or implement conservation
works. In this case, alteration methods adopted were not compelling enough to
produce quality of works that are up to standard. Another problem faced by the Art
Gallery of Kedah during its conservation process was the task of selecting contractors
to perform specific works. The selection became perplexing as no established
yardstick can be used as basis to measure the ability of contractors suitable to be
recommend for the job. In Mac 2003, the conservation project of the Art Gallery of
Kedah has been completed and fell within the competence of the Department of
Museum and Antiquities of Malaysia as one the tourist spots in Kedah today.
The conservation of heritage buildings is very important, especially in today’s
urban society where the rapid development of city is gradually erasing the historical
footprint of the country. Heritage is our pass that have been preserved for the present
to represents the historical evidences and values of the local community, and will be
inherited for the future generations. Although there are many issues encountered in
conservation work, these challenges can be overcome by cultivating more talents in
this field with the support of government and local authorities. More importantly,
educating people to develop the mindset of appreciating cultural relics since young
will also make a great influence in architecture conservation.