A. Conservation Essay

ARCHITECTURAL CONSERVATION “HERITAGE BUILDING CONSERVATION IN MALAYSIA: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES”

Name

: Chong Yi Hui

Student ID

: 0324404

Tutor

: Mr Azim Sulaiman

Heritage Building Conservation In Malaysia : Issue and Challenges The act of conservation refers to the preservation of something to prevent it from being lost or destroyed. This breaks down into two further categories which are tangible and intangible conservation, which means things that can be seen and touched and things that cannot be touched, respectively. Examples of tangible conservation include building conservation, wildlife conservation and human conservation while intangible conservation includes cultural heritage conservation. For this particular essay, it will be focusing on building conservation, more specifically the issues and challenges that comes with conservation works.

In Malaysia, there are a lot of historical buildings that manage to stand to this day due to the undergoing conservation works. For example, the buildings in Central Market, Kuala Lumpur, Bangunan Sultan Abdul Samad, City Theatre near Dataran Merdeka and many more. Building conservation requires the conservator to carry out research on the building’s history culturally as well as architecturally in order to retain an accurate historical value of the certain building.

One of the common issues that contributes to the poor condition of the building is the environmental issues, especially when the climate in Malaysia is always hot and humid. Due to this, the external facade of the building and parts of the building that are overexposed to the sun glare and rain can potentially deteriorate and diminish the value of the building. As a result, the current condition of the building serves as a major challenge for conservators to carry out their task, depending on how critical the damage is.

The second issue faced in conservation projects is the lack of financial power to fund the project. The problem comes from the unpredictable nature of conservation works due to many assumptions made in the project that increases provisional and contingency costs. This is caused by the incomplete design information which is often the case for almost all conservation projects. Conservation projects usually requires a substantial amount of funding due to the materials used has to be authentic to capture the original vision of the building. These materials are hard to acquire nowadays as compared to the period where the building is first constructed. Hence, the cost to obtain said materials is significantly higher now mainly due to its rarity. For example, both the KL City Gallery and City Theatre were faced with financial problems with the conservatory works.

Thirdly, among the biggest challenge in building conservation is technical issues.

Technical issues in this case refers to the limited availability of resources. Insufficient resources to properly redevelop the building to its original state causes the building to remain vacant. As mentioned previously, the lack of authentic materials is also a major issue in this regard, as well as the labour necessary to fulfil the manpower requirement of conservation projects. Due to the lack of skills required for the repair and maintenance work, about more than half of the conservation and maintenance work are done by inexperienced workers which results in the problems coming forth after the conservation works. The lack of proper documentation skills and knowledge also contributes towards technical issues. For example, the Royal Selangor Club doesn't not have sufficient documentaries on it as multiple files on the building have been lost in time due to various causes. Therefore, more experienced workers have to take part in the conservation work.

Furthermore, human error is also a very common issue in building conservation.

Human error such as miscommunication among all the parties involved in the project is a reoccurring issue in this field of work due to the involvement of many professionals such as contractors, consultants, suppliers and sub-contractors. Because of different understanding of various scopes of work, these professionals, craftsmen as well as the labourers often have poor communication when handling conservation projects. In addition, stringent bylaw requirements and building code provide another hurdle to comply with correct principles and guidelines of historic building conservation.

In conclusion, there are plenty of issues and challenges that come with the conservation projects, but there are also plenty of advantages of conservation projects. It lets the younger generation see with their own eyes the historical significance and cultural heritage of their own roots. This is why it is crucial to preserve historically significant buildings in the world as they not only show the history of the world but also the technology development of humans in general. Therefore, building conservation should be supported by all parties to prevent the issues and challenges related to conservation works from occurring.