CULTURAL & COMMUNITY DESIGN STUDIO
Folklores: Marriage Hall and Cultural Gallery
// FOLKLORE // RESTORATION : EXHIBIT : COHESION : NOURISHMENT
In what way Kuala Terengganu Chinatown can be restored architecturally through peranakan marriages?
COJOINED MENAGE - The notion of this project is to rejuvenate the literatures and traditions of Peninsular East Coast Peranakan Chinese. Centuries ago as inscribed in one of the stone tablet in Terengganu, earliest Chinese wave settled at the coastal of Kuala Terengganu and ever since then, the mixture of foreign cultures and beliefs with the local Malay begins, often through inter-marriage. The union of two distinct ethnics during the time created a remarkable community called Mek and Awang. The fusion of cultures creates distinct features. Local formal attire like such as sarong kebaya are embroidered with Chinese motifs. Based on empirical research it was clear that due to political issues and diminished local economy, the unique culture began to falter as generation pass. To give the Chinatown a leg up, a public building with commercial proposition is initiated, forming a profitable real estate and bringing it to the surface of interaction. The core objective of the project is to resuscitate the dying traditional Peranakan marriage by narrating a story of two households that comes together as a whole. The intention is to create an eureka moment through marriage as a celebration of new life and multiplicity that gives a colorful and significant meaning to the Peranakan culture.
The morphological implication is to mimic by fabricating miniature kampong(village) within Chinatown, promoting the Peranakan culture by shifting in and condensing the concept of traditional marriage. The celebration of identity and hybridity in Peranakan culture structured its architecture configuration and internal composition. By inquiring into Kuala Terengganu’s Chinatown architecture typology, cuisines and traditional outfits, two buildings are outlined to disperse their own energy and purpose by having a correlating effect on each other. The gist of traditional Chinese courtyard concept is weaved and intertwined between buildings by creating an incessant loop to romanticize its relationship.
