Talk: Ongoing Conservation Work in Fort Cornwallis, Penang

Conservation Architect Gisèle Taxil, currently engaged as a consultant by Think City with the support of the French Embassy in Kuala Lumpur, will present the partial results of the ongoing conservation works, which also include a training component for young Malaysian professionals, workers and apprentices interested in building conservation. She will also share her experience with the conservation of other sites and monuments, particularly the restoration of the earthen Great Mosque of Mopti carried out in Mali for the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, an international philanthropic foundation devoted to the preservation of the cultural and physical heritage of Islamic countries. 

The ongoing pilot conservation work in Fort Cornwallis aims to address the main dilapidation issues affecting the Storage Rooms located along the south side of the fortification's flank wall. Made of bricks, like the rest of the defensive structure, the Storage Rooms were built at the time of the Napoleonic Wars, during in the early part of the 19th century. In actual fact, the French threat never materialised and the strength of Fort Cornwallis' defences was never seriously tested under fire. The Fort and its structures remain to this day one of the best examples of quadrilateral four-bastioned forts in the region.

In the decades following their construction, the Storage Rooms continued to be used as a godown, and constitute today one of the few surviving original structures that still remain within Fort Cornwallis' defensive walls. Time has not been kind to the structure: the main dilapidation issues include structural cracks on the walls and vaults, high moisture affecting the base of the wall as a result of poor water drainage, deteriorating bricks in need of re-pointing, and extensive presence of efflorescence and microorganisms on the exterior and interior brick and plaster surfaces .

Time : 7pm-8:00pm (followed by refreshments and delicacies provided by the French Embassy)