The interior design aspects of Jawi and Chinese Peranakan historical building museums in Penang / Nur Anis Amira Yussof

The ‘Peranakan’ communities are well known as part of a cultural heritage that emerged from Malaysia's history. Georgetown in Pulau Pinang, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, consists of many heritage buildings, which also was owned by the Peranakan communities. The dominance of design aspects studies of Chinese Peranakan heritage buildings overshadowed seven other groups of Peranakan ethnics in the Malay peninsula, particularly of the Jawi Peranakan’s heritage buildings. This research aims to explore the Jawi Peranakan’s heritage building’s design aspect in the interior spaces compared to the Chinese Peranakan’s heritage buildings that have been adaptively re-used as museums. It is achieved through identifying the Jawi Peranakan and Chinese Peranakan that have been adaptively re-used as museums in Pulau Pinang and the design aspects of heritage buildings. The findings then recognise aspects culturally influenced in the design that represents their cultural values in the identified design aspects through a qualitative approach using case studies as a strategy for the data collection. The Jawi Peranakan showed more geometrical motifs and floral motifs. However, the major cultural influences in the design aspects were related to the cultural values concerning the Chinese belief that the number 8 represents prosperity in the design of the decorative motifs.