Sunday, January 6, 2008

Old Wooden Shophouses in Sungei Petani


Semeling

What did the first shop houses look like? Travelling to the Sungei Bujang Archaelogical Museum, located in the rural countryside, I took some pictures of simple shop houses in two small towns – Semeling, then Tanjong Dawai on the coast.


Tanjung Dawai

The early shop houses were probably single storey shop houses with large overhanging roofs over a walkway. They would have had attap roofs, but were later superceded by zinc.


Tanjung Dawai

There are also examples of two storey shop timber houses. These were a fire risk and have been discouraged by by-laws since the 19th Century. But you can still find them in out of the way small towns.


Tanjung Dawai

There is also an example of small-town Chinese fishermen terrace houses.

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1 comment:

Kyle and Svet Keeton said...

Those look like what we had when I grew up around the Ozarks in Mo. Those are neat buildings. I would love to have a shop or store below and live above. Russia has a lot of things like this, just most have collapsed now and not being used anymore.

The back woods of America had similar buildings. I have seen whole towns based on this structure. With even third floors plopped on top of the second floor. I have also seen them collapse because of snow and other weather problems.

Neat article but they need to be round! :))

Kyle & Svet