The authenticity of the urban fabric includes the urban

morphology, the largely retained urban fabric of shophouses

with their street patterns and courtyards, as well as the open
spaces. It is also a matter of the functions of the urban fabric
and the continuity of use of buildings for specific functions.

Adaptive reuse
This is particularly important since many private heritage
building owners in sustaining their incomes choose to
change the usage of their buildings to meet the current
demand to accommodate the growing tourism sector. This
is manifested in the adaptive reuse of heritage
shophouses

The building regulation says that the

maximum height the building can go is 16 meters and the
new
additions must be set back 3 meters behind the existing
building line.