Sustainable Restoration for Historical Buildings

Case Study : Penaga Hotel, Penang Malaysia
Designed by : Hijjas Kasturi
Building type: Pre-war Terraces and Shophouses
Year built : 1920s

Introduction
Historic buildings were traditionally designed with many sustainable features that responded to climate and site. When effectively restored and reused, these features can bring about substantial energy savings. Taking into account historic building original climatic adaptations today's sustainable technology can supplement inherent sustainable features without compromising unique historic character.

 Photo by Saiful Ramli

The Hotel
The building was redesigned by Hijjas Kasturi. Originally the hotel was three rows of double storey terraced house and shophouses. The restoration and redevelopment of Hotel Penaga has used recycled materials wherever possible. The roof tiles have been salvaged from demolished buildings in Penang. The timber for structures and floors has been sourced from demolished colonial period buildings throughout the Peninsular. The reconstructed 'antique' furniture is from southern China where old pieces are re-prefabricated.

Elsewhere, new materials are generally handmade, like the en-caustic cement patterned floor tiles from Vietnam and Indonesia, where they still use 80 year old presses and techniques. Carpets are either handmade bamboo mats from east Malaysia, patchwork kilims from Turkey, patchwork cow skin or sisal from India.

Overview of Penaga Hotel. Photo by Saiful Ramli.

Interior of Penaga Hotel's room. Photo by Saiful Ramli.

The garden is planted with mostly indigenous Malaysian species, and planting is designed to reduce heat and glare, increase soil permeability and provide as much greenery as the space would accommodate. The swimming pool is salt water to reduce chemical use.

 Above: Pathway to Swimming pool and restaurant area.

Below: Landscape between two blocks of Penaga Hotel.

Photos by Saiful Ramli.

Water is heated using a combination of Solarmate MMS60 solar panels (transfer only) and Seers Hybrid Hot Water System (Hutton). This is a new Malaysian product that activates heat exchange from the immediate environment to heat water. There are five heaters. Clarke uses standard coil heater tanks.

Every room has choice of ceiling fan or inverter air-conditioning for guest to make their own choice.

Above: Interior of room. Combination with Asiatic influence and contemporary design. 

Below: Timber Decorative at mezzanine floor and Chinese style furniture.

Photos by Saiful Ramli. 

Water for the garden comes from roof runoff. The tank capacity is 10,600 litres stored under the garden. The kitchen separates biodegradable material for composting.

Planter boxes as a buffer zone to separating public area and private area.

Photo by Saiful Ramli.

The are 99 solar photovoltaic panels that can generate a total output of 20.79kWp that is sold back to the national grid. Wherever possible, lighting is from LED bulbs to reduce demand and rooms are served by a system that automatically cuts off power if guests are not on the premises.

References

Kasturi, H. (2012). From hands-on information retrieval. In Seminar Sustainable Restoration on Penaga Hotel, Penang. 14 - 15 May 2012. Penang.

All the photos by Saiful Ramli.