Tiled beauty of George Town

Thursday, May 17 2012

A DISTINCT feature of old Penang shophouses is their floor and wall tiles. Colourful and intricately designed, they adorn the façade of these sites grandly, many a time denoting position and status in the local community. Flowers and geometrical designs are usually painted on the tiles and one may spot these designs on the shophouses along Lebuh Armenian, Lebuh Muntri, and Jalan Cantonment, etc. View slideshow below for example of designs and read here for history of tiles in Penang.

Shophouses have been built in Penang for 200 years now. Designed mostly for the sake of commerce, especially in the city centre of George Town, the unique Penang shophouse structure clearly shows the influences of Chinese, Malay, Indian and European styles, all merging in response to the local milieu.

From the Chinese came the courtyard plan, the rounded gable ends and the fan shaped air vents; from the Malay came the carved timber panels and the timber fretwork; from the Indians, urban construction techniques; from the Europeans, French windows and decorative plasterwork (Penang Shophouse Culture). This amalgamation resulted in striking building architecture seen throughout the city. Read here for more on the design phases of a Penang shophouse.

Indeed, the unique features of its townhouses and shophouses have been used as important criteria to obtain George Town’s UNESCO World Heritage Site listing (read here for more on Unesco’s criteria). The joint UNESCO World Heritage Site listing nomination dossier of George Town and Melaka says that both cities show a great variety of architectural and cultural influences from many parts of Asia and Europe, which have been adapted to local conditions and this multicultural identity is manifested in both their tangible and intangible heritage (UNESCO Melaka and George Town Nomination Dossier).

Reference