Shophouse
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Asia and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (November 2022) |
A shophouse is a building type serving both as a residence and a commercial business.[1] It is defined in dictionary as a building type found in Southeast Asia that is "a shop opening on to the pavement and also used as the owner's residence",[2] and became a commonly used term since the 1950s.[3] Variations of the shophouse may also be found in other parts of Asia; in Southern China, Hong Kong, and Macau, it is found in a building type known as Tong lau, and in towns and cities in Sri Lanka.[4] They stand in a terraced house configuration, often fronted with arcades or colonnades, which present a unique townscape in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka,[4] and South China.
Design and features
- Site and plan: Shophouses were a convenient design for urban settlers, providing both a residence and small business venue. Shophouses were often designed to be narrow and deep so that many businesses can be accommodated along a street. Each building's footprint was narrow in width and long in depth. The front area along the street was formal space for customers, while the rear areas were informal spaces for family members, toilets, bathrooms, kitchens, and infrastructure.
- five foot way.
- Courtyard and upper floor: Traditional shophouses may have between one and three floors. The shophouse was usually built between parallel masonry party walls. The upper part of the house was used as living quarters. To ensure air circulation, an inner "courtyard" (air-well) was placed midway between the front and rear of the house.[5]
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Shophouse, Quanzhou, China, 1992.
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Shophouse, Pattani, Thailand, 1992.
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Shophouse, Melaka, Malaysia, 1992.
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Shophouse courtyard, Melaka, Malaysia, 1990.
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Shophouse in Pecinan, Semarang, 1991.
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Colonial shophouses with Back Lane in George Town, Penang, 1991.
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Shophouses line Binondo, Manila, Philippines, 1915.
Covered walkways
In 1822, instructions were issued by
Covered walkways are found in a building type called with no intention of creating regular and uniform townscapes.
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Passage with colonnades, Singapore, c. 1840
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Shophouse in Hong Kong before the Verandah Regulation, O. Chadwick's Report, 1882
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Shophouse in Hong Kong after the Verandah Regulation, c. 1905
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Shophouses in Taipei, Taiwan, c. 1930
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Shophouses in Sanxia, Taiwan
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Shophouse in Jingliao, Tainan , Taiwan
Facade design
The facades of the building and sometimes the pillars may be decorated. The facade ornamentation draws inspiration from the Chinese, European, and Malay traditions, but with the European elements dominant.[11][12] European neo-classical motifs include egg-and-dart moldings, and Ionic or Corinthian capitals on decorative pilasters. The degree of a shophouse's ornamentation depended on the prosperity of its owner and the surrounding area; shophouse facades in cities and (former) boom towns are generally more elaborate than spartan rural shophouses.
Masonry-heavy
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Shophouse in Singapore
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Shophouse in Singapore
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Shophouses in Singapore
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Shophouses in Penang
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Shophouses in Penang
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Shophouses in Penang
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Shophouse in Kuala Lumpur
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Shophouse in Kuala Lumpur
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Shophouses in Kuala Lumpur
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Shophouses, Kampot, Cambodia
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Shophouses, Kratie, Cambodia
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Shophouses inCho Lon, Vietnam
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Shophouses, Paifang Street, Chaozhou
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Zhongshan Road, Haikou
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Shophouses, Colombo, Sri Lanka
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Shophouses inTwatutia, Taiwan, c. 1940
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Shophouses in Xinhua Old Street, Taiwan.
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Shophouses in Sanxia, Taiwan
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Shophouses in Daxi, Taiwan
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Shophouses in Daxi, Taiwan
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Shophouses in Daxi, Taiwan
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Shophouse in Daxi, Taiwan
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Shophouses in Daxi, Taiwan
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Shophouse in Daxi, Taiwan
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Shophouse inTwatutia, Taiwan
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Shophouses inTwatutia, Taiwan
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Shophouse inLukang, Taiwan
Function
The front of the shop on the ground floor in most cases is used for commercial purposes, while the upper floors are intended for residential use.[13] The ground floor may serve as food and drink shops, offices, shops, or workshops. If the ground floor include living spaces (usually located at the back), it may be used as reception, guestrooms, and formal family rooms with ancestor altars.[citation needed] As the settlement prospered and population increased, some front shops were put to professional uses such as clinics, drugstores, law offices, pawnshops, travel agencies.[citation needed] Food and drink shops usually served economical selections, such as a variety of ready-cooked food of Chinese style, Padang style (Halal), or Siamese style. Cooking stalls rented a portion of space from the shop owner and served specific food such as fried noodles, fried rice, Indian pancakes, noodle soup. A variety of drinks was served by a different stall, sometimes by the shop owner. Such stalls have been replaced by food courts.[citation needed]
Street corners were prized as the best location for food and drink shops.[citation needed]
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Shophouse, Pecinan, Semarang, 1991.
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Shophouse, George Town, Malaysia, 1995.
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Shophouse at a street corner, George Town, Malaysia, 1999.
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Shophouse pharmacy, Glodok, Jakarta, 1991.
Modern construction
Modern shophouses are made of reinforced concrete. Loads are carried by beams and piers, built on a grid system. The spacing of the piers is determined by economic factors: wider beams require larger amounts of steel. A plot of land that measures 40 m wide and 12 m deep, could be used to create 10 shophouses, each measuring 4 m x 12 m, or eight shophouses measuring 5 m x 12 m, or something in between.
Walls are infill, which means that a row of shophouses can easily be reconfigured, to allow a business to occupy two or more shophouses, by simply removing the dividing walls.
A row of shophouses can be built in stages by exposing around 50–60 cm of rebar in the left-right beams at each end of the row. When continuing construction, new rebar is tied to the existing rebar to allow the beam to be continued, thereby removing the need for new structural piers.
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A row of six reinforced concrete shophouses in Pekanbaru, Indonesia.
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Row of contemporary shophouses in Tenom, Malaysia
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1970s-era shophouses in Baliwag, Philippines.
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Post-war modernist shophouses in Quiapo, Manila, Philippines.
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Late 1970s mixed-use tenements in Sampaloc, Manila.
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Chatuchak District, Bangkok.
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Renovated units in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Singapore shophouses
The shophouses of Singapore evolved from the early-19th century during the colonial era. It was first introduced by Stamford Raffles who specified in his Town Plan for Singapore the uniformity and regularity of the building, the material used as well as features of the buildings such as a covered passageway.[6] After the colonial era, shophouses became old and dilapidated, leading to a fraction of them abandoned or razed (by demolition work or, on occasion, fire).[14]
In Singapore, the Land Acquisition Act for urban development, passed during the early-1960s and amended in 1973, affected owners of shophouses and worked a significant compensatory unfairness upon them when their shophouses were seized to satisfy redevelopment efforts.[15] Over the decades, entire blocks of historical shophouses in the urban centre were leveled for high-density developments or governmental facilities.
Owners and occupants of colonial shophouses in Malaysia underwent different experiences involving a series of
Many shophouses in Singapore that escaped the effects of the Land Acquisition Act have now undergone a revival of sorts, with some restored and renovated as budget hotels, tea houses, and cinemas. Some shophouses are now considered architectural landmarks and have substantially increased in value. In 2011 in Singapore, two of every three shophouse units sold for between
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Pre-war shophouses in Bugis's Tan Quee Lan Street.
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Bugis Junction's glass roof provided for pre-war shophouses. February 2019.
Heritage shophouses
While the preservation of historic shophouses has suffered substantially in heavily developed states like
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Heritage shophouses in Melaka converted into guesthouse, 2008.
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Heritage shophouses, George Town, Penang, 2008.
Indonesian shophouses
Shophouses have been very popular since the Dutch colonial period, particularly in
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Shophouses along Jalan Kramat Raya, Senen, Jakarta, 1991.
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Ruko Development in Senen, Jakarta, 2010.
See also
- Ancestral houses of the Philippines
- Architecture of Portugal
- Architecture of Singapore
- Bahay na Bato
- Bruges merchant houses
- Chinese architecture
- Lingnan culture
- Malay houses
- Medieval Merchant's House in Southampton
- Nipa hut
- Rumah adat
- Sino-Portuguese architecture
- Strip mall in North America
- Terraced house
- Tong Lau, in Hong Kong and southern China
References
- ^ Tirapas, Chamnarn. "Bangkok Shophouse: An Approach for Quality Design Solutions" (PDF). School of Architecture and Design, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
- ^ "Shophouse". Lexico. Archived from the original on 18 October 2019.
- ^ JSTOR 41486189.
- ^ a b Kudasinghe, KSKNJ; Jayathilaka, HMLB; Gunaratne, SR. "Evolution of the Sri Lankan Shophouse: Reconsidering Shophouses for Urban Areas" (PDF). General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
- ^ Zwain, Akram; Bahauddin, Azizi (1 December 2017). "The Traditional Courtyard Architectural Components of Eclectic Style Shophouses, George Town, Penang" (PDF). International Transaction Journal of Engineering, Management, & Applied Sciences & Technologies. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 July 2019. Retrieved 31 July 2019.
- ^ a b Charles Burton Buckley (1902). An anecdotal history of old times in Singapore. Singapore, Printed by Fraser & Neave, limited. p. 84.
- JSTOR 41493367.
- ^ Jun Zhang (2015). "Rise and Fall of the Qilou: Metamorphosis of Forms and Meanings in the Built Environment of Guangzhou" (PDF). Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. 26 (2): 26–40. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2015.
- .
- ^ Izumida, Hideo (May 2003). "Settlement Improvement in the Former Hong Kong Colony According to Reports by Osbert Chadwick: A Study on colonial cities and architecture in South-east Asia Part 3". Journal of Architectural Institute of Japan: 179–186.
- ^ "Malaysia: shophouses of Georgetown, where East meets West". Minorsights.com. Archived from the original on 5 January 2017. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
- ISBN 9789835203626.
- ISBN 9971-69-164-7.
- ^ Kaye, B. (1960). Upper Nankin Street, Singapore: A Sociological Study of Chinese Households Living in a Densely Populated Area. University of Malaya Press, Singapore & Oxford University Press.
- (PDF) from the original on 14 April 2016. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ "What is the law relating to the control of rent in West (Peninsular) Malaysia?". Lawyerment.com. 31 May 2001. Archived from the original on 3 April 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015.
- ^ a b "Why is the Control of Rent Act 1966 being repealed? Why is Control of Rent (Repeal) Act 1997 being introduced?". Lawyerment.com. 31 May 2001. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2015. Retrieved 2015-3-6
- ^ Kuar, Manjir (24 February 2011). "Unesco warns Penang on swiftlet breeding shophouses". The Star. Malaysia. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
- ^ Property Guru (27 March 2012). "Shophouses increasingly popular among investors". Yahoo! News. Archived from the original on 4 April 2015. Retrieved 31 March 2012.
- ^ Wong, Johnni (21 March 2012). "Skyrocketing shophouses". The Star. Archived from the original on 5 January 2017. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
Further reading
- Chang, TC & Teo, P, "The shophouse hotel: vernacular heritage in a creative city", Urban Studies 46(2), 2009, 341–367.
- Chua Beng Huat (Chua, B.H.), "The Golden Shoe: Building Singapore's Financial District". Singapore: Urban Redevelopment Authority, 1989.
- Davis, Howard, Living Over the Store: Architecture and Local Urban Life, Routledge, 2012. ISBN 978-0415783170
- Goh, Robbie & Yeoh, Brenda, International Conference on the City, Theorizing The Southeast Asian City As Text: Urban Landscapes, Cultural Documents, And Interpretative Experiences, World Scientific Pub Co Inc., 2003. ISBN 978-9812382832
- Landow, George P. "The Shophouse: A Characteristic Singaporean Architectural Form". postcolonialweb.org. Retrieved 2012-3-30. Web article with photographs.
- Lee Ho Yin, "The Singapore Shophouse: An Anglo-Chinese Urban Vernacular", in Asia's Old Dwellings: Tradition, Resilience, and Change, ed. Ronald G. Knapp (New York: Oxford University Press), 2003, 115-134.
- Lee Kip Lim. "The Singapore House, 1849-1942". Singapore: Times, 1988.
- Ongsavangchai Nawit & Funo Shuji, "Spatial Formation And Transformation of Shophouse in the Old Chinese Quarter of Pattani, Thailand", Journal of Architecture and Planning, Transactions of AIJ, V.598, pp. 1–9, 2005. ISSN 1340-4210
- Ongsavangchai Nawit, "Formation and Transformation of Shophouses in Khlong Suan Market Town", Proceedings, Architectural Institute of Korea, 2006.
- Phuong, D. Q. & Groves, D., "Sense of Place in Hanoi's Shop-House: The Influences of Local Belief on Interior Architecture", Journal of Interior Design, 36: 1–20, 2010. doi: 10.1111/j.1939-1668.2010.01045.x
- Yeoh, Brenda, Contesting Space: Power Relationships and the Urban Built Environment in Colonial Singapore (South-East Asian Social Science Monographs), Oxford University Press, USA, 1996. ISBN 978-9971692681
External links
- "Shophouses in Singapore". ShinyVisa. 23 September 2018.
- "Shophouses of George Town, where East meets West". Minor Sights.