2.2.

3 PENANG HIGH COURT

2.2.3.1 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Penang High Court was another one of the heritage building which located in the core
zone area. It is part of the Penang Heritage Trail Tour and recently done in process of
restoration by Penang authority. This 3 storey high court was painted in white colour was sits in
its original corner of two busy roads of Light Street and Farquhar Street. Penang High Court
consists of two different building with almost the same design which is Original Heritage Building
and Annex building. The Original Heritage Building was the original one which built in 1905 by
the straits colonial engineers of the Public Work Department at cost of 206.678 Straits Dollars.
The original structure of this building was build around the 1880’s. One of it is a memorial built in
the memory of James Richardson Logan, bearing the dedication, an erudite and skilful lawyer,
an eminent scientific ethnologist. Logan was well known during his time because he is an editor
of the Penang Gazette, Logan died in 1869. It was gazette as a historical monument by 21st
June 2001.Nowadays this high court building was use as the Supreme Court of Penang.

Figure 2.13: High Court front view

Source: Field study (2008)
 Figure 2.14: The surrounding of Penang High Court
Source: Field study (2008)

2.2.3.2 ARCHITECTURAL STYLES AND CONCEPTS

There are two structure was added within the restoration of Penang High Court which
are a three storey Annex Building and a 7 storey Bangunan Sri Pinang. The Bangunan Sri
Pinang located in front of the Annex Building which it consists of a cafeteria, 6 magistrate and
criminal’s court plus 3 floors of car park.

The Original Heritage Building locate all high court and judges’ chambers, all deputy
registrars’ rooms, all senior assistant registrar’s rooms, bar room and high court registry and
administration offices. The design of the building based on British Palladian architecture with
elements of impressive Greek Doric and Ionic columns.

The Annex Building’s recently finished constructed in 2007 and design of the building is
made by the Arkitek Urbanisma. The 3 storey new building of Penang High Court located beside
the Heritage Building. It consist of civil sessions courts, civil magistrates courts, filling counter
for both high court and subordinate courts, subordinate courts’ registry and administration
offices and auction room.

British Palladian are a style of European architectural style which originally derived from
the Italian. Palladian became popular briefly in Britain during the mid-17th century. British
Palladian is different with the original Palladian which is from Italy within its concept. For the
British Palladian there are Palladio's central temple is no longer free standing, the wings are
now elevated to near equal importance, and the cattle sheds terminating Palladio's design are
now clearly part of the facade.

The most exposed Palladian concept is on its window construction. It consists of a

central light with semicircular arch over, carried on an impost consisting of a small entablature,
under which, and enclosing two other lights, one on each side, are pilasters. This arched
window is flanked by two lower rectangular openings, a motif that first appeared in the triumphal
arches of ancient Rome. The other features is its high column with some decorative on the top
or the bottom to show their art in the design.

Figure 2.15: Palladian style which use in the design of both High Court building.
 Source: http://en.wikipedia.org (2008)

Figure 2.16: The original High Court was located at the left side and Annex building of High
Court located at the right side.

Source: Field study (2008)

2.2.3.3 BUILDING SIGNIFICANT AND ELEMENT OF IMPORTANT

This building was very important to the Penang. It is the symbol of justice in Penang
state during the colonial era until now. It is very significant to the history of Penang because
there are many element of the building showing the background of the building which relate to
the Penang history. There are to block building of high court that has almost same design but
different in a few element. The different between these two building of Annex building and the
Original Heritage building is at the column as shown in figure below. The original building has
cornice at the top of the column outside the building while the Annex didn’t have the element.
Figure 2.17: The differentiation between two high courts. Picture in left show the Cornice column
for Original High Court and picture in right show the Column without decorative features for
Annex building

Source: Field Study (2008)

This building also has a lot of round ventilation hole to provide natural air inside the
building. The ventilation part have some cornice on every each of them follow the concept of the
building. The other element of important is their certain windows which have arch shape on the
top of the window. This element can be found at the middle part of the High Court.

Figure 2.18: Arch use at the door element and along the colonnades.
Source: Field study (2008)
 Figure 2.19: Ventilation hole
Source: Field study (2008)

Figure 2.30: Dome features use at the towers of Original High Court
Source: Field study (2008)