Old and new? Or was it new and old? The houses that is shown in the photo are what used to be railway quarters. They probably have been built in the 40s, judging from the design that they used.
From the from the front it might look small, but if one is to look from the back, you can see that the house is really long. I estimate the build up of this unit might probably reach something like 1200 to 1500 sqft. It could have probably been design to have “penthouse” for the master bedroom on top, but at the ground floor would be “utility” stuffs like kitchen store and living area.
I am trying to imagine myself living in the era of 1940s, where things are probably a lot less busy and its probably much more safer to live then than now. You probably gotta deal with some communist here and there (not that dangerous?), and not thugs and thieves that wonder around looking for bags to steal, girls to rape and house to break into. Even the houses technically don’t have any perimeter fencing.
Now this area, Brickfields seems to be an under-developed area though its sitting in one of the gem in Kuala Lumpur. Being just beside KL-Sentral, which is booming like a mad town (i think), this places have so much potential for various development. I would seriously be against any development that will require demolishing this houses, because they look so nice, and seriously, one could have an area like Heritage Row and Changkat Bukit Bintang. In fact, because of the road in front of these houses is so much wider that “infamous” two, i would think its more suitable!
Ok… maybe i should start thinking of developing this area then.. hmm