Choosing an Architect

Shophouse Restoration: Choosing an Architect

Over the past few months we have started the process of researching, meeting and engaging Architects (in Bahasa: Arkitek). Since the architect will be working with us in seeing the project to its completion, it is a crucial decision.

Prior to engaging architects for consideration, we first came up with our criteria:

1. Possess previous project experience with heritage buildings and pre-war shophouses. Able to provide examples and references of previous work. Preferably, the said person will be able to take us to view his/her previous projects so we have a better idea of their vision and quality of work.
2. Exhibits a sound knowledge of local guidelines and restrictions concerning heritage properties and have the ability to navigate the local bureaucracy to obtain proper permits in a timely manner.
3. Demonstrates a vision and sustainable/eco-friendly ideas for restoring a heritage building, i.e. someone who does not rely solely on us for ideas but is able to work collaboratively to visualize the final outcome.
4. Flexibility in working with our ideas, budget and timeline.
5. Ability to communicate effectively. This is important both in terms of transferring their ideas and knowledge and also in their proactivity in sharing progress updates.
6. Comfort in communicating via email, phone asnd the Internet as meeting in-person will not always be an option.
7. Passion for heritage buildings, a creative mind, good personality and a pleasure to work with.
8. Encourages the publication of the project’s status on this blog.

After coming up with our desired criteria, we began the search by contacting the Penang Heritage Trust (PHT) and the World Heritage Office for a list of architects working in Georgetown. We also spoke to owners of a few restored shophouses to find out which architects they may have worked with. Armed with this knowledge, we made contact with several candidates and spent several weeks learning more about them, their projects and skills.

We arrived in Penang in early September and met with the final two candidates. We commissioned them both to conduct a dilapidation report to obtain a better sense of their work. We then met with them to walk through the shophouse and clarify their reports. Both candidates have worked on various restoration projects in town and took us around to view them. After lengthy consultations and time-consuming deliberation, we finally decided on an architect who we felt was committed and passionate about restoring our shophouse, and more importantly, will work well with the vision we have for 36SL. Our decision was based on the aforementioned criteria and our comfort level with the archictect.