Stylistic Classification of Shophouses in Chinese Settlement Area in George Town, Penang, Malaysia

Shophouse is a famous building type in cities of Malaysia with its commercial usage on the ground floor and residence on the upper floor. The earliest shophouses were influenced by the indigenous Malay house style. Later, the styles were popular with the western influences due to the application of brick and plaster, construction technique and regulation of building by-laws. The syncretic nature of its style has incited scholars to be disagreeing on a single and precise classification. However, some styles like Attap' type and Art Deco due to their distinguishing characteristics had an easy recognition. Several scholars have classified these styles of shophouses in Malaysia into different categories. This paper reviews six stylistic classifications of shophouse facades in Malaysia and further refines its genres by focusing it on a small region in George Town, Penang. The study examines 403 shophouses built in various periods along the seven parallel streets in George Town. It embarked with twenty-eight visual elements under the category of five architectural elements of the shophouse facades. The survey applied documentation, observation and visual method for the study of the facade elements. The findings suggest a fine tuned stylistic classification of shophouses based on a previous study of Hassan & Yahaya (2012) which is considered more pertinent in context of Malaysia.