The Adaptive Reuse of Old Shop Houses at Jalan Mendaling, Kajang – An Overview

Abstract

Building conservation is generally an effort to preserve and maintain a cultural and natural heritage to prolong its entire life so it can be enjoyed to our new generations. One of the popular conservation approaches used around the world is adaptive reuse. As part of the agendas in Sustainable Development Goal 2030 by the United Nation Development Program, the adaptive reuse approach can save resources by using new building materials and land use planning in construction and development. The rows of heritage buildings such as the old shophouses can be found easily in old town centres and some of these stocks are under threat of destruction due to negligence. The purpose of this study is to identify the building conservation approach carried out on the old shophouses in Jalan Mendaling, Bandar Kajang and to identify their retained original function. A survey was done to the identified location which was firstly initiated with a preliminary study of the related theory. Content analysis was also performed to obtain adaptive reuse strategies that suit the building typology. A total of 36 old shophouse buildings located on the road have been identified for their building design, type of business, functional change and facade renovation. The results of the analysis found that 78% or most of the subjects still retain their original function as business premises although most of them have changed the original business form and underwent a transformation of architecture from their original design. The original function can be seen on the ground level but on the upper floor has undergone a change of use. It was also found that the old shophouses that were left empty mostly needed a suitable business strategy as the location of the building in Jalan Mendaling is on the main traffic route of the Kajang City.