Travels: Steel structure in a pre-war building in Taiping

This white timber building in the Taiping Club is supported by a steel structure.

A very curious structure indeed.

The building is really beautiful in its simplicity.

A close look at the structure tells you that this building is not of the 60s or 70s.

Sometime during mid 2006, whilst doing research for Kelab Sultan Sulaiman project in Kampung Baru, KL, I went to several old towns one of which was Taiping, an obvious choice because of the significant number of pre war buildings that's still around. During a visit to the Taiping Club, recently restored by Lawrence Loh, to my great pleasure I discovered this unique structure, a small timber building supported on steel pillars. I haven't seen anything quite like this before and found this discovery to be truly enlightening as application of structural steel in a timber building such as this is not the norm during colonial times. The building to me is truly a beautiful piece of work.