Deciphering urban cultural heritage, community and the city

摘要

Cities must have prerequisite elements that attract people to appreciate their context. Usually, historic cities have the advantage over newly established urban centres because of their archaeological vestiges and collective memories of the past could still be projected as valuable public commodities. The primary concern of this paper is to highlight culture as a significant attribute in the development of urban form, and as a product of the collective and individual experience of the various social groups. It is culture that triggered the emergence of the socio-economic, technological and political structure of colonialism, which shaped the various social groups, which in turn shaped their built environment. By investigating the built forms of the colonial city of George Town through urban morphology and building typology, the objective is to unveil the characteristic patterns, the ambience and image portrayed, and finally the prevailing architectural styles within each particular historic setting. These will then be compared at various junctures to the existing context of the city in order to identify elements that have contributed in preserving a stable and a unified built environment.