Professional Documents
Culture Documents
a
Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, 131 Rottenrow G4 0NG UK –
(mohamad.zainal-abidin , a.h.bridges)@strath.ac.uk,
b
Faculty of IT, Multimedia University, Cyberjaya, 63100 Malaysia - aishah@mmu.edu.my
KEY WORDS: Digital archaeological reconstruction, fortress, cultural heritage, 3D model, virtual world
ABSTRACT:
The “A Famosa Fortress” is one of the oldest partially extant European buildings in Malaysia. Its origins may be traced back to a
fortress built by the Portuguese in 1511. The fortress is located in the city of Melaka and was largely destroyed during the British
occupation of 1824. Throughout that 300 years period of occupation it went through several architectural developments and
changes. At the moment there is no major action taken to fully preserve this heritage. Additionally, with the complex logistic
condition and geographical factor of the Melaka city today, it is impossible to fully reconstruct this fortress in its physical
context. As an alternative solution, we propose to digitally reconstruct the development of this fortress in various eras. There are
several challenges to be overcome in developing the digital archaeological reconstruction of the A Famosa Fortress such as the
long timescale of development and rebuilding on the site; the minimal amount of authoritative documentation and the variety of
measurement systems and graphical projections used in the early descriptions of the fortress. This paper presents some findings
on the architectural information of the fortress based on various data sources and some preliminary approaches that we have done
to verify the consistency, similarity and integrity of the data. This verification of data is the most important process in this
research considering the remaining of the fortress is no longer available. From the result, we found that the fortress undergo
different development stages under different occupation and a lot of data still need to be collected to get an accurate measurement
of the fortress. In the future work, we proposed to use the traditional 3D polygonal modelling for the digital reconstruction of the
fortress.
*
Corresponding author.
2. It is inarguable that the lack of authoritative
documentation is the main obstacle in this research.
Most of the documents are scattered all over the
world. To trace these documents requires us to
contact related bodies in the countries that were
involved in the past occupation in Melaka such as
Portugal, Netherlands and Britain. Additionally
these documents are very old and require translation.
3. The variety of measurement systems and graphical
projections used in the early descriptions of the
fortress requires us to translate them into standard
units. Other than that we also need to compare its
old graphical projections and match with other
graphical and textual resources. Any similarity in
these findings will strongly support our rationale.
Presently the Malaysian government is taking another step to At this stage, we managed to collect several drawings and
preserve some of the new findings in this fortress. The paintings from various resources (mostly during Portugese and
conservation team is reconstructing one of the bastions known Dutch era) that describe A Famosa in visual form. These
as the Middleburgh bastion which dates from the Dutch drawings have some similarities between each other. Other
occupation. Nadharaj (2003) explains, “However, work to than visuals we also found some textual descriptions about
uncover more of the buried wall, despite its historical this fortress which are very helpful to assist and support the
significance and potential to draw more tourists into the area, reconstruction process. These textual descriptions are taken
may not be feasible as it would involve tearing up the major from old letters and books. For instance, Lima, (1988) states
road that links the old town with the new commercial area”. that in 1588, Joao Baptista Cairato, an Italian military
Hence, only certain part of the fortress can be reconstructed. architect had inspected the fortress and made suggestion on
In order to solve this problem, we propose to digitally alteration for military security purpose.
reconstruct this fortress in form of 3D model which can be
navigated in the virtual world. Since the fortress itself has Based on our analysis on the collected data, we have
faced several changes in its design and layout, by categorised the design development of this fortress into 4
reconstructing it in 3D allows the researchers to investigate stages namely;
and study the development of these changes from architectural 1. The early stage: single building with a tower
and historical aspects. 2. Extension of fortress under the Portuguese
occupation
1.3 Objectives The Dutch occupation
The British occupation
There are several objectives for this research:
1. To collect and analyse all the related documents 3.1.1 The early stage: single building with a tower: In
about this fortress and translate into visual forms. the early Portuguese Malacca book, Thomaz et al., 2000,
2. To study the historical and architectural background describes figure 2, “Malacca in the first half of the 16th
of the fortress including the functions and structures from century according to a plate from ‘Lendas da India’ by
various resources. Gaspar Correia. The walls had not yet been raised and the
3. To reconstruct the fortress design development in central district, as weak as the district of Upeh is protected
3D models based on collected data from various by a simple palisade. The Famosa fortress stands out, clearly
resources. medieval, with its four storey keep and a single bastion
4. To provide reliable and standard 3D models of this facing the sea, to place artillery. All the houses are
fortress for architectural visualization and historical apparently covered by a vegetal substance.
education purpose.
2. ISSUES
(a)
(b)
Presently we are still collecting as much information as Kennedy, J. (1962). A history of Malaya, A.D. 1400-1959.
possible about this fortress. Since the remains of the fortress [New York], St. Martin's Press
are very small, the only method of reconstruction is traditional
3D polygonal modelling. The use of advanced methods such Malacca Centenary Committee. (1936). Historical guide of
as photogrammetry and 3D laser scanning are not practical Malacca. [Malacca]: Malacca Historical Society.
due to these methods requiring physical objects to be
measured. We propose that the process of the 3D modelling Leupe, P. A., & Hacobian, M. (1936). The siege and capture
will commence once the data is fully obtained and the major of Malacca from the Portuguese in 1640-1641: extracts from
arguments are answered. Theoretically all of the information the archives of the Dutch East Indies Company. [Singapore,
from the drawings and textual descriptions will be translated Malayan
Manguin Pierre-Yves, (1988). Of Fortresses and Galleys The
1568 Acehnese Siege of Melaka, after a Contemporary Bird's-
Eye View, Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 22, No. 3, Special
Issue: Asian Studies in Honour of Professor Charles Boxer,
pp. 607-628