d+a Issue 116

Page 14

/ FEATUR E /

CONSERVING SINGAPORE’S MODERN BUILT HERITAGE THE ARCHITECTURAL COMMUNITY WEIGHS IN ON THIS TOPIC AND IDENTIFIES THE OBSTACLES THAT STAND IN THE WAY. WORDS LOW S HI PING

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/ P H OTOGRAPHY JEREMY SAN, SHS COLLECT ION

EDITOR’S NOTE

This is the first feature in a year-long series where we spotlight the conservation of Singapore’s modern built heritage across six different themes. Visit the d+a website for complementary stories on this important issue.

L

et us be honest: Modernist buildings are not the easiest to love.

“These are the tangible legacy of the

Abstract, hard-edged, unornamented

visionary leadership of local politicians,

and often composed of solid, simple walls of

planners, developers and architects who

reinforced concrete, they are the antithesis of

created a vast new landscape during 1965

conventional definitions of beautiful architecture.

to 1975,” says Ho Weng Hin, one of the three

In Singapore, they are everywhere, since

founding members of the Docomomo-Sg

the country underwent rapid urbanisation

Working Group-In-Progress and Founding

when the modern tradition was in vogue,

Partner of Studio Lapis.

loosely defined as from the 1950s to the 1980s.

For example, the Pearl Bank Apartments,

It naturally begs the question of why they

designed by architect Tan Cheng Siong,

are special and worth saving – in short, what

became an important prototype for high-rise,

exactly is the fuss?

high-density urban living that embodied the

ARCHITECTS STATE THEIR CASE Perhaps the most compelling argument is that they are symbols of Singapore’s “can-do

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spirit” in its nation-building years.

pioneering spirit and innovation of that era. While it still stood, it was studied and feted

by

architects,

architectural

planners,

historians

and

urbanists, heritage

enthusiasts both as an elegant solution to


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