Preserving Heritage Aesthetics

Abstract: The Malang Government has made several improvements to strengthen Kayutangan as the Heritage Capital of Malang City. The presence of new cafes reviving historic buildings in K.S.C. (Kayutangan Street Corridor) has become a place for food and beverage businesses. The rise of new companies in K.S.C. and the massive improvement of K.S.C. has led to the revitalization of diverse shop frontages along the street corridor due to the revival of social, economic, and cultural activities in the Kayutangan area. This study aims to investigate the level of suitability for the emergence of shop frontage design diversity on historic buildings. We are focusing on visitor’s preferences as laypeople. The results show three building frontage typologies in the study object: Associated-Suspended, Overlapped, and Confronted. The assessment of visitor preferences shows a good level of suitability preference for the variety of historic building frontages in Kayutangan. Visitor preferences reveal that building frontages with associated-suspended and overlapped typologies have the highest significance of suitability of shop frontage design concepts compared to the Confrontational type. Therefore, this study suggests considering Associated-Suspended and Overlapped typologies to be implemented on a transformed historic building. When analyzed together as visual and spatial aspects of the area as a whole, the Building Style and Function are the factors that influence the suitability of shop frontage design in the K.S.C. area. The unique characteristics of Dutch East Indies architecture and the building's function can elevate the building’s image and the street corridor’s image as a historic district.