Penang design weekend

On the 5th of April, Lillian came to Penang for a day to look at no.105.

With her was Incognito Amigo – an engineer friend who has kindly offered to advise on structure related issues. They arrived in the morning at just the right time for breakfast. So, I took them for a leisurely Char Koay Teow in Pulau Tikus after which we made our way to no.105 where Teong Kooi and Joyce, teachers from my Free School days, joined us.

Teong Kooi, proud teacher that he is, offered to take responsibility for providing ambient music for 105, drawing from his vast collection of jazz records and cds. That morning he chatted excitedly, smoked, watched and listened as Joyce quietly read the newspapers.

Meanwhile, Incognito checked the beams, pulled the ceiling boards down nearly killing me, looked at some cracks and kicked the wall (and the bricks crumbled and fell out!), while Lillian took additional measurements and photographed the views from the building. Discussions centered around structural design and choice of materials. We also considered the relationships between the old and new parts of the house and the spatial transitions within the house.

2 sweaty hours later, we adjourned to Keng Kwee Street for cendol which was frantically delicious. This was followed by a much calmer experience at the E&O where we adjourned to for beer, coffee, and more discussion on the transition between the various spaces and elements in the house eg the air-well, pond, entry way and also the human traffic-flow.

Here at the E&O, Teong Kooi extolled the virtues of capitalist opportunism, without which, he said, he would most certainly be unable to enjoy the luxuries of such a hotel for the price of a cup of coffee, including taking a crap in style. We most certainly couldn’t disagree.

It had been an intense day of discussions, and for Lillian and Incognito, designing as well. Teong Kooi and Joyce suggested we rounded off the day with some grilled sea-food in Batu Maung. No one could top that suggestion. And so, despite driving into a freak storm and with Incognito and Teong Kooi ending up in Prai, we did eventually make it in time to catch the picture perfect sunset that sealed a very productive day.

KL Design week

This past month, I have met and discussed renovation plans with my architect and friend, Lillian Tay over 2 major sessions – one in KL and the other in Penang. This is office web-site http://www.veritas.com.my/

The 1st KL meeting was held in Lillian’s house on 22nd March, where 3 other friends and my sister, Heng Leng attended as well. It was a rowdy free-for-all that propelled itself late into the night on copious amounts of food, alcohol and cigarettes.
We talked about a range of issues: what the space will be used for; sustainability of the business; the cost of the renovation; what to retain, to restore or to demolish; being ‘green’; the possible structural solutions that can be used and what it means to be located in the heritage zone.

It was indeed a fabulous brain-storming session that Lillian would mine for design ideas which we looked at and discussed a few days later.

Mark Choo, resident accountant and risk manager who had been away checking on a chicken farm in Sitiawan, came along for the follow-up meeting on 25th March, where we “crunched some numbers” and gawked at Lillian’s design. She presented a simple and very elegant scheme for an 8 – 10 room budget hotel that included a multi-functional studio, a café and maybe a small performance area.

The scheme opened up the house, allowing additional light and ventilation by reclaiming the pre-existing side air-well, and balancing small, compact rooms with lots of common access areas. While the front of the house will be restored, the back section after the air-well will be replaced with a freestanding, 3-storey concrete and steel intervention.

Excited as I was by her bold approach to the design process, I couldn’t help thinking, secretively, about some not-so-lofty things, like where I was going to keep my mop, how to get rid of the stink from the toilet bowl, where are the air-con compressors going to be stacked and stuff like that. But I wasn’t sure if I was “allowed” to, or whether the time was right to bring them up. So I kept quiet and thought I’d better wait a while and see what happens before asking these kinds of mundane questions.

Striking gold!

Look! Look what my initial excavation has revealed

- the original granite airwell AND patterned cement tiles circa 1920 - 1940! All buried underneath a foot of construction rubble and concrete!

The entire floor had been raised previously in an attempt to prevent flood waters from entering the house and from this preliminary dig, it seems like at least some of the floor features are still in place. The tiles are a little caked with lime after being buried for so long, but that's a small matter. What matters is that the airwell is still there! Now, I hope and pray that the entire granite airwell at least, is still intact, but that will be another story for another time.

Accompanying the discovery of the existence of this airwell, was another big surprise - the realisation that the original position of the airwell was towards the centre of the house and not to the side, as it currently is. This was later confirmed by Dr Gwynn Jenkins (friend and cultural anthropologist) who very kindly sent me this interesting old plan from her collection. No. 105 is lot no.86 on the plan. This means that the corresponding space upwards all the way to the roof will now have to be reconfigured if I were to reclaim the original airwell.

And look at this. Look at the two little beams that cut across the other parallel beams in the picture below. This marks the original position of the staircase towards the back of the house rather than its current position at the side. The previous owner sure did some major reshuffling to create a warehouse-like space. Isn't this interesting?

For the past 3 days, I have been buzzing with excitement over these discoveries. I finally wound down yesterday evening, pleasantly walking around with Janet and getting caught in the rain. We passed the house occupied by some Indian old-timers - Janet's buddies, it seems. She chatted for a while and found out one of them has been hospitalized. He was a stevedore when he was young. They didn't drink much water working in the docks those days and his kidneys, after all these years, are suffering from the dehydration he must have endured back then. She'll visit him at the hospital.

And by the way, my aunt has been enjoying a winning streak at her mahjong sessions since that visit to the Tiger God. She's pleased.

Rehabilitation

One of the greatest tragedies that has befallen some of the pre-war shophouses in Georgetown has been the use of non-porous materials in later repair-works.

Because the water table is very high in the inner city, walls and floors have always suffered from rising damp. In the past, the use of porous terracotta tiles for the floors and lime plaster on the walls, coupled with sufficient ventilation from an unobstructed air-well and back-yard, allowed the damp to evaporate through the floor and walls. Besides keeping rising damp uner control, the process of evaporation kept the house cool. It was intelligent design; one that was sensitive to climate, geography and the laws of nature.


Later efforts at renovating and repairing pre-war houses had prioritized the use of harder and less porous materials to keep rising damp at bay, chief of which are concrete and stoneware or cement tiles. Unfortunately, this did not solve the problem of rising damp. By locking the damp in the walls, it was forced to creep further and further up the walls, sometimes even rising up to the first floor, magnifying the problem. This, and the reclamation of extra space by covering up the airwell, and building up the back-yard have compounded the damage to the houses by greatly obstructing air-flow and reducing ventilation.

Over the years, these houses became very, very sick and was thus primed for termite attacks, rotting timber beams and water and salt-damaged walls. Sadly, 105 Malay Street is one of them.

The Tiger-god protects against all evil-doers!

And so, I finally was able to collect the keys to 105 Malay Street from my lawyer, which I did this past Monday. Its now ... *ahem*... my house. Of course, I went over immediately to look it over. It was a complete mess. There was a termite infested ceiling, termite infested floorboards, slabs of plaster peeling off the water-damaged walls, rotting beams, leaks everywhere, a broken staircase, rotting food and piles of discarded shoes. But I loved it and I was happy and excited.

The next day I set about looking for a contractor to clear out the trash and to hack and remove all the unwanted additions. After talking to 2 prospectives, I settled for Lim, a contractor my new friend, Bernard, had recommended. Lim had worked on restoring a house on Chow Thye Road that Bernard was managing for a couple of his friends. Bernard had been pleased with Lim's work and attitude, and gave a strong recommendation. So Lim it was. He started work on Wed.

Meanwhile, I had sauntered over to Komtar nearby in search of some renovation guidelines. I thought I'd better be clear about regulations since Malay Street separates the Georgetown heritage core zone from the buffer zone. (On one side of the street, the houses are in the core zone and on the other, the buffer zone. No.105 lies in the buffer zone.)

After being re-directed a couple of times in the maze that is Komtar, I found my way to the Heritage Building Control Section of the MPPP Building Department, on the 11th Floor, where I spoke to Mr Tan. Mr. Tan was a friendly chap who assured me that I was free to seek his assistance anytime to discuss my plans with him. But he didn't give me any guidelines. I was a bit perplexed. (I did however, find out that I would be allowed to build a 3rd storey from the air-well to the back of the house. Janet Pillai - friend & responsible citizen - over a beer, was not amused)

Yesterday, the 9th day of the 2nd moon, all the animals in the forest opened their mouths for the first time after their hibernation. At 6.45pm, precisely the moment when their mouths opened, I was at the Goddess of Mercy temple on Pitt Street with my aunt, where we made offerings of lard to the tiger-god. I had also spat on the negative forces that would come my way and vigorously stomped on a little paper figurine of a man to ward off any future evil intentions from people I will encounter.

The stage is now set. I've had a wonderful start to the renovation process. But now, knowing the path is clear and with the tiger-god protecting me, I stride ever more confidently into this exciting and very educational journey of many, many months.