An encounter of diversity of building signage in traditional street character at Melaka historical centre

Abstract

Today, street functioning as social arena is less sensitive towards designing a continuity of building appearance in terms of building signage design, thus creating an unattractive setting. The design of building signage nowadays that does not consider the whole context of the street and human scale aspects has created a chaotic ambience. Thus, this paper will discuss the continuousness of building signage design that contributes to street character by referring to traditional street model. A mixed method employing questionnaire survey (n=330), in-depth interview with street users (n=21), content analysis of archival data, and a visual survey was adopted. This study has chosen the streets at Melaka Historical City Centre because they represent the local character. Those streets are Jalan Tukang Besi, Jalan Tukang Emas, and Jalan Tokong. The study shows the continuousness of building design created by the diversity of building signage, thus creating an attractive environment to consider in the new street design. This study concludes that the result acts as a benchmark for designing the future or existing street as a public space. The new street milieu portrays the spirit of a place and has a potential in the future tourism sector by attracting them to places with local character.