Ambassador's Fund For Cultural Preservation

A joint cultural preservation project under
"Ambassador's Fund for Cultural Preservation"
between U.S. Embassy Malaysia and
Badan Warisan(Heritage Trust) Malaysia.

Progress at
No. 8 Heeren Street, Malacca.
October 2001

Before undertaking actual restoration work, Badan Warisan and its architects and other specialists undertook a preliminary inventory of the shophouse, including a careful review of its architectural features and research of the original materials used in the construction of the structure. They also undertook an inventory of neighboring shophouses to determine the level of their architectural authenticity. No. 8 Heeren Street was rated as "high" on this inventory - a status shared by only 23 other shophouses in the area. Together these authentic shophouses constitute only 8% of the shophouses in the historical section of Malacca. Badan Warisan also did a detailed title search to determine the ownership history of the shophouse. Their research yielded a plan of Malacca dated 1744, which prominently features Heeren Street on which the shophouse is located.

Badan Warisan has also spent a considerable amount of time to date carefully excavating the floors of the structure to ensure that no artifacts were accidentally destroyed during the restoration. Although this yielded interesting data on the use of Dutch bricks in the construction of shophouses of this era, no artifacts have been found to date. Timber analysis was also conducted on samples taken from door frames and beams, both to ascertain their origin and to assist with the procuring of similar woods for the next step of the restoration. Rotten beams have also been replaced to shore up the structure. Because of the time-consuming nature of this type of research, structural restoration has proceeded slowly. However, now that the research phase is completed, and once Badan Warisan receives the second tranche of funding for materials under our grant, reconstruction should proceed at a faster pace. Photographs and a description of the excavation can be viewed from this website.