CENTRE OF STUDIES FOR BUILDING SURVEYINGFACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND SURVEYING

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

CHALLENGES IN SUSTAINING OLD SHOPHOUSE IN KUALALUMPUR

NUR SALFARINA BINTI FAUZI (2012620226)

Academic Project submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirementsFor the degree of

Bachelor of Building Surveying (Hons)Centre of Studies for Building Surveying

Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying

July 2015

CENTRE OF STUDIES FOR BUILDING SURVEYINGFACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE, PLANNING AND SURVEYING

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

CHALLENGES IN SUSTAINING OLD SHOPHOUSE IN KUALALUMPUR

“I hereby declare that this academic project is the result of my ownresearch

except for the quotation and summary which have been acknowledged”

Student’s Name Signature

UITM No.Date

: Nur Salfarina Binti Fauzi

: July 10th, 2015

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

All the praises belongs to allah swt for giving me strength, courage abd

oppourtunity to complete my academic research.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Puan Zarina

Ithnin for her support, guidance and knowledge all the time of writing this study and

keep me on track, Without her guidance this study might not come to end.

Besides, my warm thank goes to the owner of the shophouses or the

respondents of my questionaire survey at Jalan Petaling and Jalan Sultan. The

cooperation and sharing are highly aprreciated as well as to the people, personnel

and bodies who involved directly and indirectly in helping me to accomplish this

study.

I am also grateful to my parents for their never ending support and sacrifice

thorugh out all difficult times of my study and friends who had always been there

and sharing the knowledge and informations regarding this subject.

Thank you.

ABSTRACT

This research paper is about a study on the challenges in sustaining the old

shophouses in Kuala Lumpur. Kuala Lumpur was chosen because it is where the

modernisation and new development rapidly take place. This can be seen as a

threat to the heritage buildings especially old shophouses in Malaysia.

Old shophouse is a part of heritage buildings that represents culture,

economic activites and story of the cities. A shop in South East Asia is defined as a

building with an opening onto the pavement and the proprietor occupies the building.

The significance of the old shophouses can be considered as a type of heritage to

urban form and townscape of a place and has a unique architecture that represents

the aesthetic of a culture.

<The main objective of this study is to investigate the challenges in sustaining

old shophouses located in a city where modernisation takes place. The outcome of

the study is hoped to help overcome any challenges in maintaining and conserving

the unique architecture. The methods used in this research are open interview

involving the local citizen and questionairre survey for the tenants or owner of the

old shophouses.

CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Background of the research

In a survey “Inventori Bangunan-bangunan Warisan Malaysia” by National

Museum on 1992, the record showed that more than 35,000 pre-war

buildings are located in 265 towns nationwide. Most of the pre-war buildings

are the old shophouses that created the town itself and unique streetscape

patterns. These buildings gave an identity and characteristics to the streets.

They also distinguished urban areas such as Kuala Lumpur or Georgetown

from others. Most of the buildings also happened to be the heritage

landmarks to the towns.

Unfortunately, most of the old shophouses are the most significantly affected

by destruction (Idid, 1995). Alteration of the existing skyline of an urban area

by the invasion of large blocks of shopping complexes or office tower blocks

have affected the unique historic core of the cities. According to Wan Ismail

(2012), uncontrolled development has resulted in the building of new

* facades sandwiched in between old buildings as cited in Said et.al (2013).

The main factors driving changes in urban environment and directly affected

the sustainability of heritage buildings are globalization, demographic

changes, uncontrolled development and economic pressure. According to

Said, Aksah, Ismail (2013), heritage sites in developing nations, including

Malaysia, are currently facing intensified urban problems due to rapid