Here is a study in contrasts: a tranquil residence just yards from a bustling and colourful street scene; a thoroughly Chinese-European-Malay Straits Settlements amalgam situated in George Town’s Little India; above all, one of the oldest shophouses in Penang, probably dating from the 1830s, transformed by the ingenuity of a 21st century designer.

This transformation is the work of French architect, Guillaume Kuhlmann, and his Malaysian wife. At its heart has been the maintenance of the look and feel of the shophouse while creating an optimum environment for the modern age. The former challenge has been met by a consistent use of traditional materials – whether timber in the staircase, white-grey Ipoh marble in the bathrooms, encaustic tiles on the floors – and good conservation practices, but the latter is where design ingenuity is apparent.

The perennial design challenge with shophouses is introducing light into what historically are quite dark spaces. Kuhlmann has gone for radical solutions, both externally and internally.

Externally, the entire rear elevation of the property had collapsed shortly after the current owners had purchased it in 2009. To the consternation of others, the architect declared: ‘Nature has done the work for us – the wall is not going to be reinstated’. He decided instead to adapt the common shophouse use of louvred shutters over windows to encompass the entire elevation; to create a sort of Giant Order of shutters. Replacing the entire wall with a series of floor to ceiling shutters was – to say the least – puzzling to contractors hitherto accustomed to crafting just window shutters, but the architect was adamant and the results very evident. The aesthetic impact is arresting. The functional effect is transformational. The rear courtyard spatially becomes a natural extension of the living space of the interior, becoming an exterior sitting room, which, in turn, draws in the natural light from the courtyard. 

But there would be limited natural lighting and ventilation advantages to this without complementary design changes to the interior of the house and these have indeed been implemented. They take the form of completely opening up each floor so they are flooded with unimpeded light from both front and back. The main staircase has been opened up to enhance this effect. The whole first and second floors, running from bathrooms at the front, to bedrooms to sitting areas is divided only by glass barriers not only for privacy but also to reduce noise from street level.

The owners have sought to escape the feel of ‘an air-conditioned box’ in favour of a high-ceilinged, light-flooded tropical house, at one with nature through its courtyard providing an ‘outdoor sitting room’, an integral element in the overall concept, in their view. They have succeeded triumphantly. It is a tour de force.

The fortunate purchaser of this property will be benefiting not only from Kuhlmann’s design ingenuity but also the years of hard work and perseverance that the current owners have put into its transformation.