Retaining Sarawak’s architectural legacy
FREE AND EASY: ‘DNA believes in an informal work environment to foster an atmosphere of discussion and learning.
As Sarawakian towns develop and grow, many of the buildings that formed our physical and emotional townscape have been lost in the name of progress.
While it is understood that sometimes the old must make way for the new, an interview with Wee Hii Min of Design Network Architects Sdn Bhd (DNA) raised the question of how to retain the past to converse with the new.
“Too many of our buildings are lost because not enough thought and incentive is placed on retaining existing buildings to form part of the new design, not only for sentimental reasons but also for potential cost savings in re-purposing the existing structures,” he told BizHive Weekly.
“I am not referring only to heritage buildings, but any structure that has the potential to enrich our streetscape and extend the personal history of our hometowns,” he highlighted.
Min who hails from Kuching left momentarily in 1984 to study architecture in Australia.
In 2000, he and three others formed DNA in Kuching.
To date, DNA has grown into a medium sized office with eight partners and numerous ‘designers-in-residence’ united by the simple design philosophy of creating openness, comfort and accessibility in their buildings.
They are interested in using common materials in uncommon ways for tactility; in addition, they like designs that weave the past with the present in order to extend the personal history of the site.
“The design industry in Sarawak is maturing, albeit slowly and we will need to be more cerebral in our solutions; to include non-tangible values such as sense of place, cultural relevance and memory,” he explained.
“Local clients are well-informed nowadays,” he pointed out.
“They are now more likely to pay for building comfort, easier maintenance, closer relationship with nature and a longer building lifecycle than mere square footage or fancy stone cladding.”
The recent success of local architecture firms in the PAM Awards was an indication that local clients were willing to invest in good design, he pointed out.
In 2011, DNA successfully completed a conservation and adaptive reuse of the old Sibu Municipal Council (SMC) into the new Sibu Heritage Centre, creating a new public presence while maintaining an interaction between the new and existing elements.
The design is aimed at keeping the distinctive silhouette of the former SMC building
The preservation of this social landmark for Sibu also garnered a gold medal for DNA in the PAM Awards the same year.
“In the Asean Bintulu Fertiliser Office Building, we were able to re-coup some of the original investments by incorporating two existing buildings into the new layout.
The ‘footprint’ of the demolished structures were expressed as landscaping components to recall a trace of history,” he explained.
The project won a silver medal in the commercial category during the PAM Awards this year.
Min believed that the way forward was to educate the public on the value of design.
To that end, DNA had a continuing programme that allowed students to learn about architecture through apprenticeship in their studio.