Shophouse
Videos
Page
A shophouse is a building type serving both as a residence and a commercial business. It is defined in dictionary as a building type found in Southeast Asia that is "a shop opening on to the pavement and also used as the owner's residence", and became a commonly used term since the 1950s. Variations of the shophouse may also be found in other parts of Asia; in Southern China, Hong Kong, and Macau, it is found in a building type known as Tong lau, and in towns and cities in Sri Lanka. They stand in a terraced house configuration, often fronted with arcades or colonnades, which present a unique townscape in Southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, and South China.
A terraced layout allows a row of shophouses to extend as long as a city block permits, as exemplified by this long row of shophouses in Singapore. All the shophouses are linked by a covered passageway called the five-foot way at the front.
Shophouse prototype
Shophouse, Quanzhou, China, 1992.
Shophouse, Pattani, Thailand, 1992.
Tong lau
Videos
Page
Tong lau or ke lau are tenement buildings built from the late 19th century to the 1960s in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Southern China, and Southeast Asia. Designed for both residential and commercial uses, they are similar in style and function to the shophouses with five-foot way of Southeast Asia. Over the years, tong lau construction has seen influences of Edwardian-style architecture and later the Bauhaus movement.
A structural drawing of a tong lau. Illustrated by O. Chadwick, 1882.
Nos. 600-626 Shanghai Street, in Mong Kok, Hong Kong
Early 20th century Tong Laus on Dixi Road in Chikan, Kaiping
19th-century tong lau in Tai Ping Shan in Hong Kong. The terraced buildings used by the Chinese in the foreground are distinct from the larger buildings used by Europeans higher up in the background.