Townscape appraisal and contribution of physical features towards the character of ipoh old town

Abstract

Urban character refers to the combination of elements that constitute a town. Ipoh is one of the colonial towns that portrays the character of an old town, where physical heritage elements within its historic area remain intact. However, Ipoh is now developed with many new modern developments and this impacted the physical features of the old city. This paper explores the character of the historic buildings in the old part of Ipoh through townscape appraisal and urban morphology focusing on the building plot. Besides, the study aimed to evaluate the changes in urban fabric following the changes that occurred to the old and historic buildings in Ipoh. The study revealed that rapid urbanisation and changes in urban form resulted in the diverse change of urban characters of Ipoh Old Town. An important contribution can be made to the conservation and management of urban built heritage in Ipoh Old Town, on the one hand, explaining the typologies and evolution of heritage buildings as part of important urban elements could improve the understanding about the building issues so that best conservation practices are suggested.