Housing in Historic City Centres of Southeast Asia

By Mai Lin Tjoa

Pursuing these questions, the research project hopes to achieve a better understanding of the various influences that determine the urban development process within a historic setting. At the same time, this intercultural and interdisciplinary approach should help to find a common language regarding urban development, housing, and conservation.
From our point of view, the urbanization experience of Europe can provide illuminating insights and explanations for similar phenomena in Southeast Asia. The consequent processes of deterioration and gradual improvement of living conditions in the city and the emergence of a locally centred identity have commonly been regarded as ingredients of urbanization regardless of time and space. Thus the Western experience of living in an ever-changing city may help to understand the urban renewal process in Southeast Asia. The experiences in European cities such as Bristol (Great Britain), Cologne (Germany) and Amsterdam (the Netherlands), will provide the framework for comparison. In such process the possible pitfalls caused by differing mentalities and customs in Southeast Asia, as well as those arising from the specific problems connected with late 20th century urbanization and simply by the sheer differences in sheer scale should be borne in mind.

Focus of the study
In this context the following points will become the focus of our study:
- an analysis of the historical evolution of the research area to get a better understanding of the mechanisms of social and cultural changes as far as these concern the constructed fabric and its environment setting
- the carrying out off a quality survey on housing conditions in each area to identify enduring and the less enduring parts
- working with a household questionnaire to characterize the pattern of life and the neighbourhood links by analysing mental maps
- an analysis of the character of morphological transformations and their consequences for urban space
- a consideration of the policy dilemma caught between economic growth and different conservation strategies recommended or adopted in the selected city.

In 1992 a network of resource persons was established including professionals such as politicians, planners, geographers, and conservationists from Southeast Asia. In the meantime the computer based 'Historic City Information System' (HIST) had been developed at the THD. HIST will be adapted to selected inner-city areas to visualize the physical data collected. During the course of the project several workshops will be arranged to allow the opportunity for preliminary results to be presented, and to give resource professionals the opportunity to discuss the findings with the scientists in the project. The first international workshop was held 15 - 22 October 1994 in Darmstadt and at La Clusaz (France). A publication on the workshop results will be available in 1996.

Future studies
In 1996 fieldwork studies will be conducted in selected inner-city areas of Penang (Malaysia), Singapore, Yogyakarta (Indonesia), and Hanoi (Vietnam), where living conditions will be investigated and analysed. The comparison of these four cities is based on certain characteristics: a largely intact historical setting of the city centre (or what is left of in the case of Singapore) which is threatened by development pressure; the existence of multi-ethnic layering; the two-fold use of the shophouse pattern; and the existence of heritage protection efforts.
Currently the following persons at the THD are involved with the research project: Prof. Helmut Böhme, Prof. Arnold Körte, Dipl. Ing. Alexander Koenig (town planning), Dr Dieter Schott (history), Dr Michael Seid (history), Dipl. Ing. Siauw Tiong Gie (architecture), Hannie Skroblies MA (history), and Mai Lin Tjoa MA (art history). We are interested in seeking further support for this project and in locating other institutions interested in cooperating with our research team.

For more information:
Prof. A. Körte
Technische Hochschule Darmstadt
Fachgebiet Planen und Bauen in Entwicklungsländern
El-Lissitzky-Str. 1
64287 Darmstadt
Germany
Fax: +49-6151-63937.