Love at first sight saves old house from demolition
KUALA LUMPUR: He fell in love with an old house without knowing who the owner was, and sacrificed time and money to get it saved from being knocked down.
This is a story about Tan Kay Chay, 52, an architect who initiated a project in 2014 to save Rumah Degil aka Rumah Pusaka Chow Kit, which stood at No 41, Jalan Chow Kit, from being lost forever. It was to be an uphill task.
Tan turned down many offers from people who wanted to obtain it for personal use or to rebuild it in another state.
His perseverance bore fruit when the National Heritage Department agreed to acquire the house, and restore and reconstruct it in the compound of the National Art Gallery in Jalan Temerloh.
“When I went into the house, I saw that it was in pretty good condition. It also got me asking a lot of questions like, ‘Ini rumah siapa?’ (Whose house is this?). My curiosity kicked off a journey to find out more. I wasn’t even aware at the time of its connection to Sutan Puasa (the founder of Kuala Lumpur),” he told Bernama in an interview.
Despite growing up in Jalan Chow Kit and knowing of the house, Tan was clueless about its owner. However, he had a strong feeling that it had to be preserved for posterity.
Tan collaborated with his cousin, James Chong, who volunteered to dig up history on the house. Soon they connected with Fatulrahman Ghazali, creative director and videographer at Obscura Films, who made a documentary on the house called “Stubborn House” in 2007.
The pair then got in touch with Abdur-Razzaq Lubis, the author of ‘Sutan Puasa, the Founder of Kuala Lumpur’.
After confirming that the house was indeed linked to Sutan Puasa, Tan felt it would be a shame to lose it to a different state other than where it was built.
He dreamt of reconstructing the house on Bukit Nanas where Sutan Puasa once lived, and the site of a Mandaling settlement before the Klang War from 1867 to 1873.
While waiting to find the perfect location for this project, a crew took almost three months (from March 2015) to carefully dismantle the house. A Facebook group to create awareness about it was also started by Tan, who is the principal architect at KC TAN Architect.
Tan rented a house in an inconspicuous location to store the dismantled parts of Rumah Degil so that they won’t be stolen.
“More than a year after this, a few people expressed interest in buying the house for personal use, but it wouldn’t be based in KL. We also had people who wanted to rebuild it in the forest of Janda Baik, as well as in Ipoh or Penang. But an inner voice told us it wouldn’t be right and that Rumah Degil should stay in KL, where it belongs,” he said.
Although the Facebook group brought more exposure to Tan’s conservation campaign, a decision on what direction to take could not be reached.