Adaptive reuse of heritage Penang’s clan houses as museum in George Town, UNESCO world heritage sites / Nur Athira Kamarul Zaman

In the early days of the 19th century, the Penang’s clan houses (Kongsi) was built and are known as community homes for Chinese came from the same villages and most of them have their own building or clan house in the ancient art of Minnan or Teochew. Recently the some of the most popular clan houses (Kongsi) applied the adaptive reuse works of the building as a museum. It’s the most significant driver to avoid many clan houses (Kongsi) or buildings have left gaping holes of a city and abandoned. Adaptive reuse is well known as the existing building can be change as the new function building. Most buildings that adopt the concept of adaptive reuse are old buildings or heritage building which is have their own value and history. It is offer the sustainable building site with the existing infrastructure and materials. Nowadays, many the adaptive reuse projects have been done in George Town. However, this research only focused on adaptive reuse of Penang’s clan houses as a museum whereas the clan houses are one of the types of heritage buildings in George Town. The objectives of this research are to identify clan houses with adaptive reuse principle as a museum, to determine elements affect in adaptive reuse of heritage Penang’s clan houses as museum and to propose assessment form of authenticity principle in adaptive reuse of Penang’s clan houses as a museum. In determining the number of clan houses adhere to the principle of adaptive reuse a preliminary study was conducted and founded only 3 clan houses had changed their function as the museum. To make the objectives reliable, the research went further by making observation on the elements that has been affects in adaptive reuse of heritage clan houses. Indirectly, the method of research used is a qualitative method by conducting observation and interview with 3 clan houses namely Khoo Kongsi, Cheah Kongsi and Tan Kongsi. To achieve the aim of this research, the assessment form be formed after the conducting the observation for overall elements of the building which is to make the future researcher more clearly to observe the authenticity principles of adaptive reuse. As a conclusion, the aim and objectives of this study are successfully achieved and the overall conclusion is made.