CIP A 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey 
Theatre. A stage is located inside the great hall at the ground 
level. The foyer area serves as an entrance to the great hall. The 
mezzanine floor is actually a viewing gallery that forms a ‘U’ 
shape. Three projector rooms were originally located at the first 
floor, partly storing the graduating robes and accessories. The 
roof of the great hall consists of steel trussed structures and a 
reinforced concrete slab with up-stand beam forming the 
perimeter roofing system. Access to the different floor levels is 
provided by two spiral concrete staircases located within oval 
shaped shear walls. 
The University Malaya convocation ceremony for graduation of 
students has been held yearly at the main hall of DTC since 
August 1966. In addition, it hosts numerous functions of the 
university including semester examinations, studio classes, 
theatre performances, seminars and conferences. 
1.2 Building Condition After Fire 
On Friday, June 29 th , 2001, a pre-dawn fire gutted the building. 
Since then DTC had restricted entrance to the public. Almost 
90% of the entire internal building was destroyed by fire and 
fire fighting efforts (See to Figure 2 & Figure 3). 
Figure 2: Collapsed roof trusses into the Great Hall 
Figure 3: View from the main foyer. 
2. BUILDING CONSERVATION WORKS 
The Faculty of Built Environment was given the task to involve 
in three main stages as follows: 
Phase 1: Preparing report and carrying out a condition survey of 
building after fire and existing defect on site. 
Phase II: Giving professional advice in the rehabilitation work 
to ensure the building original structure and elements, cleaning 
work, interior design and services installation. 
Phase III: Advising the preparation of documentation work of 
the entire building before and after the rehabilitation works 
including scaled photographs and compiling the detail 
information of the entire process. 
2.1 Building Condition Survey 
The building condition survey is based on progressive visual 
inspection to ascertain the extent of fire to the building. The 
dilapidation report was done after the first cleaning by 
identifying the defects and damages that need to be rectified. In 
order to report the condition of the building, a systematic 
approach was used. The building was divided into sectors. For 
further detailed inspection, the sectors were divided into 
elements and inspection was carried out from bottom to top. 
The drawing was done by architects and a team of building 
surveyors had inspected the defects after the fire and after the 
first cleaning. Coding and references were used for easy 
identification. 
Based on the inspection and findings, the followings are 
recommended: 
1. The fishes in the pond to be relocated before any 
cleaning work commences. 
2. The burnt elements such as timber frame for doors 
and window panels, curtain railings, parquet flooring, 
to be totally removed from the building before the 
second cleaning work commences. 
3. Furniture such as tables and chairs to be removed and 
placed off-site from the building. This is to ensure 
that the furniture will not be further damaged during 
the second cleaning work. 
4. The debris from the fire such as timber panels for 
acoustics, speaker brackets and nails should be taken 
down and removed from the wall surfaces. 
5. The soot marks to be cleaned by using high-pressure 
water jet and not chemical base detergent. This is to 
ensure that the bare concrete surface is not damage 
due to chemical reaction. 
6. The water from the cleaning to be drained out from 
the building as soon as the cleaning work finishes. 
7. All growth plants and debris from roof to be cleaned 
from all the rain water outlets. 
8. A new and appropriate design for fire fighting 
equipment; passive and active, to be implemented to 
avoid and further damaged in the future to the 
building. 
9. The rainwater down pipes and outlets to be 
redesigned in to the perimeter drain to avoid any 
overflow or clogging. 
Last but not least, a more scheduled maintenance programme 
should be implemented to avoid future damage to the building 
as a whole. 
2.2 Conservation Approach 
Before the commencement of any conservation work, a building 
survey and appraisal report after fire was prepared in order to 
diagnosis the building defects. Structural Analyses especially 
for the defective structure was carried out by the structural 
engineers and reported for further action in structural repair. In 
order to retain the authenticity of the building original design, 
the principles of conservation were applied and recommended 
to be carried out to: