Download - Blue Mansion
SCHOOL OF HOUSING, BUILDING AND PLANNING
RBS 203
BUILDING SURVEYING STUDIO 1
Title : Adaptation & Re-Use of Existing Heritage Building
Lecturer : Dr. Amin Akhavan Tabassi
Members :
MUHAMMAD ESYAMARUL IMAN BIN MOHD ALIAS 124080
LOEN CHIN FULL 124049
ONG HUI YIN 124136
Date : 19/10/2015
Location
The Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (The Blue Mansion) is located at 14 Leith Street, 10200 George Town, Penang, Malaysia. The mansion's indigo-blue outer wall makes it a very beautiful building.
History
The Circa 1880s mansion built by the merchant Cheong Fatt Tze at the end of 19th century. The architecture of the mansion however originates from the Su Chow Dynasty Period in China. The mansion was originally built with careful attention to the principles of Feng Shui. The blue was very popular in the Colonial period and the dye was imported from India to Penang by the British. Though white was the most easily available colour, the indigo-blue was chosen as the former is a colour synonymous with death for the Chinese.
The mansion was purchased from Cheong Fatt Tze's descendants in 1989 by a group of local Penang individuals to save from encroaching development and possible demolition. While it remains until now, a private-residence, the property operates as a 16 Room Bed & breakfast-cum-museum as part of the adaptive reuse of an ongoing restoration project which has won awards from UNESCO.
Owner
Loh-Lim, a trained psychologist, has devoted much of her time in these past years to bringing Cheong FattTze's house back to life. Captivated by intriguing personality, Loh-Lim senses the towkay's chi – what the Chinese call collective energy or spirit, or, more colourfully, dragon's breath – inside the mansion.
Penangites, accustomed to the mansion being slightly askew, were somewhat taken a back, however, when it was repainted in its original deep-blue colour. According to Loh-Lim, even old-time residents had forgotten that in the 19th century three quarters of Penang's houses were indigo-blue and the rest a limewash of ochre-yellow. It has been known as the Blue Mansion since. The fengshui alignments proved auspicious for the towkay who made ever more prosperous business deals in his elegant front hall, adorned with geometric floor tiles and art-nouveau stained-glass windows imported from England. While tea was served to business colleagues, wives number three, six and seven, plus several daughters, may have peeked at guests from behind a fantastic gold filigree screen, now restored to its former glory.
The Lohs are dedicated to authentic restoration, which demands extensive research on the house and period, as well as training or finding skilled craftsmen able to use old techniques and tools. Four elderly carpenters, discovered in Penang, took over three years to repair by hand all the woodcarving on the timber beams and shutters. Skilled workers from China restored the fantastic Chiennien mosaics rarely seen in such abundance in private houses. This ceramic shard, a Hokkien art form, decorates the gable ends, doorways, and edges of the tiled roof and the verandahs like mantle of rich embroidery. Loh-Lim picks up a pair of pliers to show how over 12,000 coloured pots were snapped into small pieces and intricately pasted together to form vivid patterns and mythological creatures. Then she progresses into the main court-yard, the largest of five, framed with eight Corinthian columns and a balcony of cast iron from MacFarlanes of Glasgow, combined with Chinese timber lattice work and wood-carved, gilded doors.