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:
