KUCHING: Carving timber details to replace the missing ones, sourcing Chinese roof tiles from China to replace the broken ones, and replacing damaged floorboards with recycled timber… these were some of the serious efforts taken to restore a century-old building in the city.
Although it is easier and more economically viable to demolish old buildings, Datin Rosemarie Wong-Jabu, a person with a strong interest in reviving lovely old buildings and giving them a new lease of life, decided to go the extra mile.
For her, restoring heritage buildings of great historical value or cultural significance is incredibly important as it reflects the cultural identity of a city.
With her passion and interest, she had successfully turned a 138-year-old colonial building into a modern lodging house – The Marian Boutique Lodging House at Wayang Street here – despite it being a delicate and time-consuming process coupled with various challenges.
Apart from restoring and preserving the heritage buildings from further deterioration; she adapted them to modern use requirements, catering to new social changes.
“We believe such adaptive reuse is possible and necessary to conserve and sustain the property, and bring economic benefits to local trades and businesses,” she said.
Wong-Jabu is the director of Urban Village Sdn Bhd — project conceptualiser and proposer, tenant, main contractor and interior designer of the property — as well as a director of Trio Tower Sdn Bhd, the operator and manager of the lodging house.
Today, the lodging house, sitting atop a hill in the heart of the city, comprises 40 rooms ranging from standard rooms, family rooms and a two-bedroom apartment, offering an exclusive accommodation experience for local and foreign tourists.
First Sarawak project acknowledged by The Edge
The Marian Boutique Lodging House, with a rich history and unique architectural style, won a prestigious award in November last year, for adaptive reuse that breathed new life into the historic structure.
It was one of the two winners of the Excellence in Conservation and Adaptive Reuse category under The Edge Malaysia Property Excellence Awards 2022.
According to Wong-Jabu, the property awards have been running for years.
“I am glad that The Marian is the first project in Sarawak to receive this award and be recognised by The Edge.
“I hope this paves the way for other deserving projects in Sarawak as well,” she said.
Acknowledgement of “Conservation and Adaptive Reuse” projects, she said, was a new but important category highlighted by The Edge.
“This should be something that we should be consciously doing to preserve our precious heritage buildings or sites,” she added.
Meanwhile, Erlynda Jacqui Chan, the judging panel of the awards, said the project was a fine example of how some reimagining and redesigning could breathe new life into old structures.
“It was clear there was a lot of thought and most importantly, heart that went into the project. The creative minds behind the project were careful to preserve, as much as possible, the original structures and materials.
“From the preservation of its heritage to the aesthetic, one can feel the passion the team has for the project,” she said.
“We have seen more adaptive reuse projects in recent years, and along with it, more awareness but more still needs to be done,” she added.
Thus, the award was to recognise the best conservation and adaptive reuse projects that preserved heritage and history, and reintroduced them to a new generation.
Chan, who is also the editor of City & Country, The Edge, said it was important to preserve historical architecture and heritage buildings for the future.
This, she said, also allowed creative minds to reimagine the spaces and turn them into something new, unique for a new generation of people, while preserving their history.
In addition, successful adaptive reuse projects can also rejuvenate the surrounding areas.
“The award is one of the ways to increase awareness, and we also feature adaptive reuse and conservation projects and topics in our publication.
“The authorities, too, play an important role in promoting adaptive reuse and conservation both to the public and builders,” Chan said.
How did it start?
The building was originally a two-storey bungalow built in 1885, home to three generations of the Ong family, including Ewe Hai’s son Kapitan Ong Tiang Swee and great-grandson, former federal minister Tan Sri Ong Kee Hui.
After it was sold to the Anglican Mission in the 1930s, a new floor was added to it. The three-storey building was then used as a boarding house for local and outstation students of St Mary’s Girls’ School.
After that, the property was used as a Diocesan Centre cum guest house, with meeting rooms, and guest rooms for visiting priests and travellers.
Wong-Jabu recalled that the property was in a run-down condition, with overgrown gardens, the two side wing structures were tearing away from the main building, and the timber chapel was badly infested with termites in 2008.
Apart from restoring the property, several discussions were held with the then Bishop, The Right Reverend Datuk Bishop Bolly, on ways to create a sustainable income for the church instead of being solely dependent on contributions by its Anglican members and congregation, and having to constantly solicit for public donations.
She proposed that the church should maximise on the commercial opportunities of its property portfolio for a more stable and consistent income.
“The property was subsequently put out for tender proposals, and amongst several submissions, we were awarded the project.
“We started the project in 2012 and it was done in sections, starting from The Granary building, then two shop lots, and finally The Marian main house,” she said, adding the lodging house was opened for booking in 2017.
What were the challenges?
For Wong-Jabu and her team, preserving the historical and heritage value of this unique building was the key driver of the restoration process. From the start, it was decided the original character of the building should be preserved as much as possible.
“Every decision made was referenced back to our guiding principles to salvage whatever we could. Materials and finishing used in the renovation process were selected to recreate the original look of the building,” she said.
However, getting a team of contractors and carpenters to share the vision of preservation and conservation was challenging.
“Not everyone could grasp or understand why we would spend more effort, time and money to fix something old and broken, as opposed to tearing it down and re-building,” she said.
While it might not have been possible to use the exact same products due to the passage of time – the same class of materials was used. For example, flooring in the new Chapel Wing was tiled with terracotta tiles to mimic the original flooring throughout the lower ground floor of the main house.
The original building was a dwelling for the prominent Ong family, subsequently the boarding house for St Mary’s Girls’ School, and finally a Diocesan Guesthouse. Thus, she decided to keep the historical usage as a dwelling house.
“We adopted the idea of a boutique heritage lodging house, appropriately named “The Marian Boutique Lodging House”. “Marian” is the name used to refer to the girls from St. Mary’s Girls School, and named after the boarders who once inhabited this building,” she explained.
Although tourists provide a valuable source of income, these fragile old buildings experience far more disturbances than are ideal.
“Hence, we are constantly doing maintenance work to the property. Yes, it does cost more to maintain an old building, especially where regular timber and weather proofing works are involved for our humid tropical climate in Sarawak,” she said.
Sarawak Heritage Society (SHS)
Wong-Jabu, who was elected as the president of Sarawak Heritage Society (SHS) in December, hoped the government could provide tax incentives, grants and subsidies to owners who preserved privately owned heritage listed buildings in order to acknowledge their efforts in doing so.
Apart from that, she said, there must be certain regulations (set by the government) to prevent demolition of significant buildings as well as to establish heritage conservation boards to oversee preservation efforts.
As for the private sector, she said, they should look into investing in restoring and repurposing building or adaptive reuse of old buildings rather than demolition and new construction.
“Of course, we also need to encourage educational programmes and public outreach efforts to raise awareness of the importance of preserving heritage buildings for future generations.
“General public awareness of the importance of building preservation is increasing but more needs to be done to fully appreciate the value of our cultural heritage.
“Heritage buildings play a crucial role in story-telling about the unique characters and history of communities’ bygone,” she explained.
Wong-Jabu said more preservation efforts were needed for built-heritage in Sarawak, including the preservation of traditional architecture such as wooden Malay houses, Iban longhouses, Bidayuh baruks as well as cultural landscapes or historically significant and monumental sites.
Over the years, she said, SHS had organised talks, film screenings and visits to raise heritage awareness for its members, the public and schools.
“SHS has been instrumental in the development of the Kuching Heritage Trail, which it hopes to continue to enhance.
“SHS has piloted community engagement programmes in Siniawan and the Fort Alice restoration project in Sri Aman as well as contributed to the training of tourist guides,” she said, adding that SHS had also raised alarm on some threatened or disappearing heritage assets.
