Investigation on Adaptive Re-use of Heritage Building in George Town, Penang

Adaptive re-use of heritage buildings in George Town has gained attention from their owners. Their owners either private owners or government, want to adapt their respective buildings to new usage for instance to become a gallery, museum, restaurant, boutique hotel and many more. Every heritage building that is being adapted to paper main objective is to identify the changes made in terms of structure, space and material when adapting the heritage buildings to a new usage specifically into a gallery. Two heritage buildings are chosen as case studies for this paper which are Rumah Teh Bunga and Fort Cornwallis; both buildings located in Penang, Malaysia. The changes made to these two buildings were analyzed using the guidelines provided which are Guideline for Conservation areas and Heritage Buildings and National Heritage Acts 2005. Both buildings will be analyzed using National Heritage Acts, while only Fort Cornwallis will be analyzed using Guideline for Conservation areas and Heritage Buildings. Adaptation of these two heritage buildings requires changes in structure, space and material. The changes in Rumah Teh Bunga focuses more on materials and space while changes in Fort Cornwallis emphasize more to space and addition of other structures. Analysis on the changes are made by using the guideline provided, most of the changes made to both of these heritage buildings comply the rules and regulations stated in the guideline. It was found from the data that some of the reasons on why the owner change Rumah Teh Bunga to gallery are because of its complicated procedure that involves in privatization of this building to other owner and the need to promote the heritage significance of this building to the public. As for Fort Cornwallis, the adaptation is more on strengthening its value as a fort and becoming a tourist attraction