Month: March 2025
BWM Talk Series: Melaka’s UNESCO Listing At Risk? by Serge Jardin
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Organised by Badan Warisan Malaysia
Date : 24 May 2025
Time : 10.30 am
Location : Badan Warisan Heritage Centre, No. 2 Jalan Stonor, Kuala Lumpur
Fee : RM20 per person (non-members), Free for BWM members
Light refreshments will be served.
Click HERE to register.
About The Talk
Join us as Serge takes us on a personal journey through two field studies: an occupational typology of Jonker Walk from 1994 to 2025 and an analysis of public information boards designed for tourists. He will examine the transformation of Jonker Walk from a vibrant historic enclave to a site increasingly shaped by mass tourism, highlighting the shift from its recognition as a World Heritage Site to its commercialization in line with World Tourism Day. Serge will explore the rapid erosion of Old Melaka’s social fabric, questioning whether the current trajectory endangers its heritage status. With parallels drawn to George Town, he will address possible future scenarios— will Melaka be in the UNESCO’s Danger List or even face delisting? This talk invites reflection on the challenges of heritage conservation in the face of relentless tourism-driven change.
About The Speaker
Serge Jardin is a memory smuggler. He was born in France, Centre-Val de Loire Region. He holds a Master degree in History from University of Paris and a Bachelor degree in Geography from University of Orléans.
After a stint as a teacher, he discovered the tourism industry, and travelled extensively around the world. In Malaysia for almost forty years, he worked as tour leader, tourist guide, travel agent and hotelier. Married to a Melakan, he is today living in old Melaka.
Serge had written and published the following books:
2010: Rêver Malacca
2013: Malaisie, un certain regard, with Sylvie Gradeler
2014: Malacca Style, with a Melakan photographer, Tham Ze Hoe
2021: Diary of a French Missionary, Penang during the Japanese Occupation.
2023: French Memories of Malaysia, Literary Excursions and Fortuitous Encounters
2024: Jean Guidon de Chambelle, Voyage to the Great Indies (1644-1651) (an., ed., tr.)
Today, he is busy with Factual Accuracy of Melaka History and Setting the Records Straight.
BWM Talk Series: Place-Making For Unprotected Green Spaces by Dr. Michal Switalski
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Organised by Badan Warisan Malaysia
Date : Saturday, 22 March 2025
Time : 10.30AM
Venue : Badan Warisan Heritage Centre, No. 2 Jalan Stonor, Kuala Lumpur
Fee : RM20 per person (non-members), Free for BWM members
Light refreshments will be served.
Click HERE to register.
About The Talk
The trade-off between urban development and safe-guarding our natural and cultural heritage is a challenge faced across all corners of the globe, yet requires local and context specific solutions. In this talk, Dr Michal Switalski will introduce place-making (through the lenses of theory, research and practice) as a way of transitioning from trade-offs to synergies for sustainable transformations.
About The Speaker
Dr. Michal Switalski is a staff member of the Professorship for Landscape and Environmental Planning at ETH Zürich. His research interests include the relevance of people-place relationships for landscape planning, the rural-urban continuum and peri-urban areas, land systems modelling with a focus on integrating qualitative features within quantitative frameworks, and landscape aesthetics and preferences.
He is involved in the GLOBESCAPE research project, that will contribute to a next generation of tools and methods to foster the development of resilient landscapes; this is in response to urbanization that threatens landscape diversity and brings along new social and environmental problems.
Kampong Bharu Walk
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Due to the overwhelming response to our last walk, we’re excited to organise another session of the Kampong Bharu Walk, open to both members and non-members.
Organised by Badan Warisan Malaysia
Date : 12 April 2025
Time : 10.00am -12.00pm
Meeting Point : To be confirmed
Fee : RM 50 (BWM members) or RM100 (non member)
Limited to 15 pax
Click HERE to register.
About The Walk
This walk brings alive the area’s historical narratives, tracing its origins as a group of older Malay villages amalgamated into the Malay Agricultural Settlement, and its transformation over the years. Ar. Nadge Ariffin will share insights into Kampong Bharu’s role in Kuala Lumpur’s urban development and how it continues to (precariously) balance modernisation with the preservation of its cultural identity. This walk promises to be an engaging journey through the past, present and future of one of the city’s most iconic neighborhoods.
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