Frontier: Building a secure future for heritage architecture

Frontier: Building a secure future for heritage architecture

Innovative social enterprise Doh Eain is collaborating with downtown Yangon residents to give them and their heritage building homes a secure future.

“The bricks are thick and the roof is four to five centimetres thick. There is still no rain leakage. The construction quality was much better,” said U Thein Aung, the proud owner of a two-storey home on Yangon’s 47th Street that’s been in his family for about 90 years.

The house was built with bricks and wood. There are two apartments on each floor, and a small courtyard in the middle of the house for light and ventilation, which was a rare design innovation at the time, Thein Aung said. It is undergoing its first major renovation since it was built more than 100 years ago.

The house was bought by Thein Aung’s grandfather in the 1930s. “I hope this house would be inherited generations by generations,” said Thein Aung, 68, who has lived in the house since he was born.