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The once-thriving port city of Malacca exemplifies Southeast Asia's historic centres that have evolved with centuries of trade, migration and exchange; where contact between East and West has built unique communities and cultural environments. Manifest in the city's architecture, people, trades, customs and religions are myriad influences that span over 600 years. Malacca's surviving heritage environment is thus an invaluable cultural resource. Yet, like that of many other historic centres in Asia, Malacca's heritage is increasingly at risk from development pressures and the effects of mass tourism. Traditional communites and trades have been displaced, heritage architecture has been destroyed by insensitive new building and the commercialization of the city's cultural assets has eroded authenticity. The need to protect and conserve one of Southeast Asia's most historic places is urgent. "Malacca: Voices from the Street" is the culmination of a collaborative effort between Portuguese architect Fernando Jorge and Malaysian architect Lim Huck Chin. In 1999, the authors embarked on a project to document Malacca's heritage architecture and communities through photographs and interviews. Research was also carried out in Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, The Hague, London and Lisbon. At the core of the six-year project, however, was an interest in Malacca's stories from the "man-in-the-street", from marginalized historical communities and from the city's sometimes unrecognized but precious built fabric. That interest has motivated the project. Just as first contact between Lisbon and Malacca nearly 500 years ago enlightened Europe and the Orient, "Malacca: Voices from the Street" offers a new perspective on the city's social and cultural history, and the perils which threaten to erase it. |
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