Examining the maintenance management practices for conservation of heritage buildings in Malaysia

Abstract

Heritage buildings are regarded as highly valuable assets to the tourism industry because of their strong influence in motivating foreign tourists to visit the country. The tourism industry generate significant revenue (GNI of RM56.5 billion in 2010) to the Malaysian economy thereby making the tourism industry the second most important sectors of the economy. Foreign tourists are attracted to these buildings due to their cultural uniqueness, high historical and architectural values, and the strong desire to see something different. Hence, it became paramount to conserve these buildings in order to prolong their life span and functions. As buildings aged, they will be exposed to serious building defects and deterioration. To date, Malaysian government has been spending quite a huge amount of money in conserving heritage buildings in the country but the buildings keep deteriorating just few years after major conservation works on the buildings. To this regard, this paper is aimed at examining the maintenance management practice for heritage buildings in Malaysia. The study will focus mainly on maintenance units of gazette heritage buildings in Malaysia. In-depth literature review, questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews followed by physical condition survey at selected sites will be used to achieve the set objectives. Among the expected outcomes are the listings of heritage building maintenance management best practice criteria. The outcomes would enable custodians of heritage sites to effectively evaluate, plan and implement their maintenance management programme, thereby able to expect savings in costs and time in future conservation works.