Tan Sri Dato' Dr Mubin Sheppard: Pioneer in the Conservation of Historical Buildings in Malaysia, 1950–1994

Conservation and preservation of historical buildings in Malaysia has been one of the broadest approaches to sustaining the man-made built environment, but ironically there has been very little effort to understand its development. Studies have been done in a piecemeal manner: either written from a technical viewpoint or from other perspectives. They have not engaged in the retrospective of the social effort to conserve historical buildings. Hence, there is an urgent need to proceed with this interesting but neglected field, to synchronize conservation with an understanding of the cultural past and to thereby build the intellectual foundation needed to sustain the future of architectural heritage in Malaysia. Some claim that conservation is simply a phenomenon which started in the mid-1970s. However, efforts were made by the collective contributions of organizations and individuals before World War II. This paper describes the significant contribution of Tan Sri Mubin Sheppard to pioneer such efforts in Malaysia from 1950 till 1994.