Era Penjajahan dan Sejarah Malaysia

Berikut adalah sinopsis senarai kronologi kepada sejarah era penjajahan yang telah berlaku di Tanah Melayu sehingga kepada Pembentukan Malaysia.

1400an                    - Zaman Kesultanan Melayu Melaka

1511                        - Pemerintahan Portugis

1641                        - Permerintahan Belanda

1824                        - Pemerintahan British (Inggeris)

1941                        - Pemerintahan Jepun

1945                        - Jepun Menyerah Kalah  - Pemerintahan British kembali.

1948-1960               - Darurat di Tanah Melayu (Komunis Menguasai Tanah Melayu)

31 Ogos 1957          - Tanah Melayu mencapai kemerdekaan.

16 September 1963 - Penubuhan Negara Malaysia

Preventive Maintenance: the Way Forward?

Some time ago, a friend and I spent a day clearing knee-deep rotting leaves from the parapet gutters of St Botolph’s. Aldersgate, in the City of London. The churchwardens had done nothing to clear the gutters for five years, as a result of the long-threatened redundancy of the church. Our work was, unfortunately, in vain.

The leaves had caused rainwater to overtop the guttering and penetrate the building, causing an outbreak of dry rot which has cost £500,000 to repair. It might all have been prevented by regular attention from one man with a brush and a bucket, costing about £200 a year. 

 

This demonstration of the combined power of leaves and rain to ruin our heritage made me question why I – and most of building conservation movement in Britain – had become preoccupied by heroic, last-minute rescues of historic buildings, from extreme dilapidation brought on by lack of even the most basic care. For every building at risk triumphantly saved with huge amounts of scarce public money, hundreds more are getting on quietly with the businesses of rotting away, often unnoticed. Why, I asked myself, did the movement not see, and act upon, this paradox? 

Further surprises greeted my inquiries. Ruskin had realised this nearly 150 years ago, and Morris a generation later. As Ruskin put it in 1849 (speaking of Rouen Cathedral):

"The principle of modern times.....is to neglect buildings first and to restore them afterwards. Take proper care of your monuments and you will not need to restore them. A few sheets of lead put in time upon the roof, a few dead leaves and sticks swept in time out of a water course, will save both roof and wall from ruin. Watch an old building with an anxious care; guard it as best you may, and at any cost, from every influence of dilapidation"

In this article, I want to set out why I believe we must put preventive maintenance back at the centre of our strategy, if the condition of the nation’s historic buildings is not to go into relentless decline, from which we will never have the resources to rescue more than a fraction of them.

What Maintenance is

Clearly, maintenance is not a complete substitute for repairs, and like anything else, if done badly, it can cause problems. Some elements - particularly roofs and rainwater goods - have a lifespan and need periodic renewal. The role of maintenance is therefore to keep the elements of a historic building functioning for as long as practicable, thereby preserving materials, craftsmanship and character, while minimising both risk and cost.

Penang Heritage Shophouses

Please click to the picture for enlarge scale

Reference:
Cultural Heritage Action Team. (n.d.). Visual Guide to Penang Heritage Shophouses. Retrieved 31st October, 2012 from Penang Shophouses.com website: http://penangshophouse.blogspot.com/2010/03/visual-guide-to-penang-heritage_24.html

Adaptive Reuse of Historical Buildings

Recommended Citation:

Ramli, S.F. (2011). Adaptive Reuse of Historical Buildings. Retreived May 18, 2012 from Heritage Malaysia website: http://heritagemalaysia.blogspot.com/2012/05/adaptive-reuse-of-historical-buildings.html 

Introduction

Many historical buildings in the world has been used again and translated into new functions. From the industrial type buildings, churches, government buildings and agriculture buildings has been reused to meet the current needs and to preserve the architectural style from being destroyed.[1] (Cantacuzino, 1989).

According to intellectual references, books and journals relating to adaptive reuse of historical buildings, there is no specific guideline or principle the process to implement adaptive reuse for historical buildings.[2] (Sven, 2003, p.4).

In The Burra Charter, the definition of Adaptation means modifying a place to suit the existing use or proposed use.[3] (Australia ICOMOS, 1999, p.2).

While in National Heritage Act 2005, stated Adaptive Restoration means which involves all or portion of the exterior restoration with the interior adapted to a modern functional use.[4] (The Commissioner of Law Revision Malaysia, 2006, p.14).