UTM to document heritage buildings in Southeast Asia

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Prof Dr Mahmud (third left) and others being briefed by a student from Rajamangala University of Technolgy Thanyaburi at The International Architecture Collaboration Workshop 2014 at UTM. — Bernama photo

JOHOR BAHARU: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia’s (UTM) Faculty of Built Environment aims to be a pioneer in recording and documenting heritage buildings in Southeast Asia.

The faculty’s senior lecturer, Dr Alice Sabrina Ismail said besides being an advantage academically for UTM’s architecture students and lecturers, the effort would also help preserve the identity of heritage buildings in the region for future generations.

The effort involving measured drawings will be carried out through UTM’s Centre for the Study of Built Environment in the Malay World (Kalam).

“To date, Kalam has over 400 collections of building documentation such as houses, palaces, mosques, public buildings, commercial buildings, waqaf, madrasah and tombs found in Malaysia and Indonesia,” she said.

She was speaking at a news conference after the International Architecture Collaboration Workshop 2014 between UTM’s Faculty of Built Environment,  Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi’s Faculty of Architecture and  Rangsit University’s Faculty of Architecture, here, yesterday.

Alice said UTM hoped to begin something new with the cooperation of both universities from Thailand to record and document heritage buildings in Thailand soon.

The cooperation will involve exchange of students and lecturers between the universities.

Meanwhile, UTM’s Architecture Department head, Assoc Prof Dr Mahmud Mohd Jusan said the workshop held with the two Thai universities was the first conducted by UTM, specifically in the field of architecture.

“This is a start for UTM in working with other universities in the region to enable the sharing of knowledge in architecture,” he said.

The one-day workshop involving 27 fourth-year students and nine lecturers from the two Thai universities and 30 UTM students aimed to build a network of cooperation to increase mobility to renowned universities in Southeast Asia. — Bernama