'Cheung Fashion House' located at Jalan Tenku Kelana in Klang

There are plenty of interesting places in Malaysia. One of them is Little India

located in Jalan Tenku Kelana in Klang. Our chosen site is a shop lot called 'Cheung

Fashion House' located in this street. It is the biggest Indian street in Malaysia. Little

India got its name due to the many indians living there. Initially it was called Rambau

Street. This is due to the fact that "Rambau" was the name of the man who basically

owned that street at that time. Myriads of items such as saris, colorful accessories

such as bangles and necklaces, textiles, stainless steel pots, Indian delicacies, gold

and flowers are sold here.

It is developed by Frank Swettenham, an outstanding administrator in the 19th

century. It consumes the size of one or more main streets lined with shop houses,

usually two storeys high. Previously, the layout of Little India was very simple as it

started off with five shops along Jalan Tenku Kelana which later then developed into

a bigger street with more shophouses surrounding it. The front was called "front

street" and the back was called "back street. The older generation were the only

ones who knew about the back street. The name was then changed to Jalan Melayu

which then was changed to Jalan Stesen Satu.

Jalan Tenku Kelana, Klang during the weekends. A lot of visitors with difference race came here to shop because of the variety stuff that can be found here.

Physical wise, it started off as buildings with a The Anglo-Straits Eclectic Style

whereabouts the residence of the early British administrators copy it from the malay

house design, a timber construction built on piles with a steep attap roof and a

covered verandah in front. The design then change due to the risk of fire where the

attap roof is change into a chinese roofing tiles. Due to heat that it’s provide from the

roof tiles rather than the cooling attap’s roof, the chinese developed a design

whereby the roof was divided into 2 sections, with higher section overlapping the

lower one to increase the ventilation. Mixtures styles of elements were add which

then developed into a building with a plan following Malay principles but built of

bricks, tiles and stucco with roman columns and other typically western

ornamentation in the 19th century. For example a shop that we have did our research

on called the 'Cheung Fashion House' which was built in 1916, sells cloths and doing

tailoring is one building that is still at its original state since the time it was built. It is

shown from the columns, roof and windows where the façade is still maintained.

The façade remains the same but the owner renovates the Triple windows from wooden frame into aluminum steel frame with tainted glass. In the middle of the openings windows the shape is a rounded-headed fanlight shape that brings back to the 19th century design.

Klang in general has around 1 million population and most of the human

population in klang are basically from the area around Jalan Tenku Kelana. The

resident in Little India there are 50% indians, 20% chinese, 10% malays and the

others are foreigners mostly from indonesia and vietnam. Originally, this area was

mainly consumed by the chinese race. However, this had changed when most of the

chinese business transferred to the North Klang. This is because it gave the chance

for indians to take over and run their own business due to the availablity of space.

Hence, now 99% of the shophouses in Little India are occupied by indian but 50%

out of the 99% are owned by chinese but rented by indians. Previously, this area was

filled with hawker stalls and "kopitiam" shops owned by the chinese. However

currently this has changed because the area is taken over by indians who sell mostly

textiles.

Our chosen site is one out of the 1% Chinese shop remaining in this area. 'Cheung Fashion House' is a shop lot that being pass down through generations according to the owner when we interview her. The best part about our site is the structure of the building is maintained and when we compared to most of the building around Jalan Tenku Kelana, the structure is already renovated.

'Cheung Fashion House'

These business they are running are mostly family business and also the

business that was brought by the east india company. Due to the fact that this area

was taken over by the indian from the chinese, it has shown a drastic change cultural

wise. For instance, the name of the street was changed to Little India. The items they

sell along that street also portray the culture. For example, indian food, indian

clothing and so on. Little India has become a one stop centre to shop for indian

festivities. This is mainly because most of the goods sold there are imported straight

from india making it difficult to be found in conventional supermarkets. Colourful as

its culture, Little India provides all kinds of hindsights as to the daily life of Malaysian

indian.

Architectural elements are unique details and component parts that form an

Most of the shops selling textiles. Items they sold showing the culture of this place.

Colourful goods that are sold here.

architectural style of house, building or structure. As for the shophouse we did our

research on which is the 'Cheung Fashion House', there were several architectural

elements that we have identified. First and foremost, the structure of the shophouse

is made from a series of interlocking i-beams which were very dominant in the

industrial revolution at that moment. This played an important role on keeping the

structure of the building light while being able to be structurally secure at the same

time. The i-beams which vary in size are connected by bolts and rivets, similar to that

of the empire state building. This enabled the shophouse to be erected within a very

short period of time whereby the frames are put together like jigsaw puzzle. However,

the thickness of the i-beams vary depending on the load it is required to carry.

Furthermore, construction costs are also reduced as less worker are required to build

the shophouse. The supporting beams for the second floor and the columns holding

it up are the thickest as they have to carry the weight of the entire second floor

including the roof.

Besides that, we have identified the roof of the shophouse which is a gabled

roof supported by i-beam frames on both sides of the shophouse and connected

using wooden beams. The gabled roofs are a very common kind of roof shape in

Malaysia due to the hot and wet weather we have. This enables the roof to dispel

heat efficiently and allow rainwater to flow off the roofs with ease. The gabled roof

also has an opening on the top which allows the hot air to flow off the roofs with

ease. Under the roof is a thin layer of plywood that acts as insulation which traps and

prevents the hot air from penetrating into the storage and living quarters. This

insulation also directs the hot air upward due to its slanted angle. The roof is

considerably tall such that more hot air can be trapped without the user feeling it,

thus the upper floor is very cooling even on a hot day. The roof tiled were originally

V-shaped Chinese roof tiles but were then replaced by abestose as the time passes

by.

Previously, the shophouse used wooden stairs to connect the ground floor to

the upper floor. However, recently they replaced the wooden stairs with metal stairs

because it is stronger, more durable and lasts longer. Therefore, they can save alot

of cost if they replace wooden stairs to metal stairs. Aside from that, we have

identified the doors they used in the shophouse which is fully made of timber. The

doorframe protrudes out of the floor forming a barrier between the rooms. This is

such that if one of the rooms were to experience any leakage or flood, the

surrounding rooms wont be effected. As for the ventilation of the shophouse, it is

ventilated via two methods, one through the horizontal flow of air from the windows of

the facade through the shophouse and out through the back windows. A series of

openings throughout the entire shophouse allows this to occur and air can flow easily

through the building as the doors and windows are aligned for a smooth flow of air.

Furthermore, the other method of ventilation is via jacked roofs which uses the

physical concept of hot air rising to allow a vertical flow of air whereby hot air flows

from the lower floor up into the upper floor through the wooden planks of the floor

and further up into the second floor. On the other hand, for the finishes we have

identified that the walls are finished by a layer of plaster to smoothen it up and give it

a clean finish. However, no decorations and fancy finishing were done to the walls.

As for the ceiling finishes, the ground floor ceiling has been renovated to hide the old

wooden beams. Though before renovation the shophouse used to be at least a meter

higher in ceiling space and one would be able to see the overlaying beams and

planks of the second floor. The second floor also had its ceiling renovated and

covered to hide the structure of the roof. In most of the shophouses throughout the

area, the second floor is exposed to the roof and gains a source of light from the

jacked roof which also aids in ventilation. The reason for such exposure to the under

parts of the roof is to provide the second floor with a higher ceiling, this then allows

hot air in the building to rise in and out of the jacked roof.

The staircase is changed into metal diamond texture plate as slab and the railing is changed into steel rails painted with brown colour. Previously it is a wooden staircase.

The upper floor is divided into three segments. The first on is a smaller sized

room which is located at the back of the building is used as a measuring room

whereby the length and dimension of the cloths are indicated and cut. Natural lighting

in this room is good as there are two windows on both sides of the room. Other than

that, the second room is where the cloths are ironed, the room also serves as a

washing room for the owner. This room is dark and has no opening for natural lights

to enter. The third and the largest room is the store room where all the clothes are

kept, there is also a living quarter towards the windows. In addition, the only external

wall present is the facade of the building which is supported by the i-beam. The entire

facade is made of bricks and layered with plaster for decoration purposes. The

facade also acts as a dead weight to support the i-beam frames on both sides of the

shophouses thus bricks were used instead of concrete. Furthermore the facade

determines the timeframe in which the shophouse was build or renovated. According

to our research, the facade is a mixture of Moghul architecture, Victorian architecture,

Neoclassical architecture and also Malaysian architecture. Lastly, the architectural

element that we have identified is the internal walls which are mostly made of clay

bricks put together with cement and plastered to give it a smooth finish. Partitions are

only found on the second floor to separate the living quarters from the storage. These

partitions are very commonly used on the second flow instead of actual walls to

reduce the weight carried by the load bearing beam. However, there is a drawback to

this as it provides very bad sound insulation as the partitions are thing and allow

sound to pass through very easily. The walls on the side of the shophouse are made

of conrete and have teethed wire mesh core which gives the wall a certain amount of

flexibility.

Overall, our group had found many historical facts and story about the shop

lot 'Cheung Fashion House' which is full of function on the building itself in term of

function, space, users and architectural value. We also learned about heritage of the

building concept, the materials used, context surrounding from the past and current

time. Apart from that, the most valuable knowledge that we obtain was that the

structure of the building still strong after almost a 100 years when it was built.

Influential from different race changes the culture and the street itself. We also

learned the importance of preserve on this heritage building so that the future

generation will know about the history and unique of architecture value of Malaysian

building.