Threat to PPC’s Survivability

Despite its importance and significance to the area, the People’s Park Complex is not a conserved building within URA’s map for conserved areas and buildings. The buildings at the PPC’s right, the Majestic Theatre and Yue Hwa Building, however, are conserved. We can also see that many of the modernist heritage buildings, such as the Park Road Development, which was mentioned at Docomomo SG’s Modernist 100, are not conserved.

According to the position paper by the Singapore Heritage Society (SHS) titled ‘Too Young To Die’, the threat to PPC’s survivability is the probable sale of this complex with the decrease of the property value and less than 50 years left on its lease. As of June 2023, the collective sale of the People’s Park Complex has been announced, which was responded by Docomomo SG through a statement post in their website.

Reasons of the sale and the reluctancy of saving the building are: The banks are reluctant to give loans for repairs and upkeep of this property, causing maintenance issues, low marketability, a change of residents’ character (into an enclave of Mainland Chinese) and negative public perception. Previously, Along with the People’s Park Centre, Golden Mile Complex and Golden Mile Tower, a committee was set up in 2018 to attempt its En-Bloc Sale. Different fates were faced by the respective buildings, in which the People’s Park Centre is currently up for sale at a $1.8 billion reserve price, and the Golden Mile Complex was successfully conserved.

In addition, the demolition of the People’s Park Complex, if it were to happen, will put Singapore in ‘debt’ environmentally, especially with the carbon emission resulting from demolishing this brutalist giant. Singapore, through the Building and Construction Authority (BCA), has committed with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to push forward a more sustainable built environment and industry. Thus, saving and repurposing these buildings should be encouraged rather than demolishing and building another building over its footprint. Furthermore, it will not only threaten small-scale local businesses based at the People’s Park Complex, but the demolition will also affect the sense of place and community of Kreta Ayer, threatening the vicinity’s intangible heritage.

Data by Alexander Utama