Post A: Cultural Preservation (Tiong Bahru)

The Tiong Bahru estate, Singapore (Photo by Jason Knott / Alamy Stock Photo, viewed 1 January 2019)

Singapore, which is also well known as lion city. Although it’s a young country that established only around 50 years, this country has not neglected the preservation on heritage in exchange for rapidly development on urban or economic. Eliminating old things and to remake new things seem to be a stereotyped rule when people think of urban development. But Singapore has high consciousness on balancing the environment with the industrial or residential development and aims to preserving the cultural building and heritage sites. Based on the cultural diversity’s background, bridging ethnic and social divisions was a very first “mission”. In the process of nation-building, the government has implemented multiple policies for reducing the ethnic conflict and fostering an identity of Singaporean among the three main groups of Chinese, Malay and Indian, such as the National Services program and the public housing politics (Ostwald 2014). Heritage conservation not only an initiative to commemorating historic buildings, but also as a medium of shaping the Singaporean national identity. Therefore, conserving heritage was highly importance to the government. According to the annual report from the Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority states that those historic architectures were representing unique character and identity of Singapore and a ‘collective memory of the public’ (URA 2003). Through the preservation of valuable things, it can increase people’s belongingness of the society. The URA was efforted to shaping the identity of Singapore, by safeguarding the build heritage. One of the iconic projects was the conservation designed for Tiong Bahru in 2003 which is successfully restored an old public housing estate, and by integrating the ‘old and new’ concept (URA 2003), the project realised to retaining historic building while creating a modern image, that designed to improving the environment and creating new business opportunities for the old community.

The conservation project of Tiong Bahru was started from 2003, which is a part of the URA’s Master Plan (URA 2004). According to the description from URA, the Tiong Bahru was developed in 1936 and conserved many pre-war flats and shophouses. These buildings have a rich history and presenting the old streetscapes of Singapore, which is so precious to Singaporeans and worthy of keeping its original form and unique architectural style. The buildings in Tiong Bahru were basically designed in minimalist architectural style that influenced by “Streamline Moderne”, its characteristics were simple and functional lines (URA 2013). Comparing with the currently architecture trends, these buildings were stand out from the community and presenting the artistic style of architecture from the past of Singapore. Considering to preserving its original architectural style, the homeowners at these building must be strict compliance the renovation guide by the URA, that is not allowed to affect the building façade (URA n.d.). Additionally, because the Tiong Bahru was intended as the housing project from the British colonial age, there are still a lot of elderly residents living in Tiong Bahru (Mahtani 2012). However, through the successful of the conservation, this community was revitalised and attracting more young people, even foreigner. Nowadays, the Tiong Bahru was became one of the hip neighborhoods in Singapore where was opening many café and indie boutiques (Visit Singapore 2018). Tiong Bahru was showing the economic value of those old things that should not be abandoned or dismantled. The conservation of Tiong Bahru not only evokes the society’s emphasis on heritage, but also a moderate initiative to resolve the aged building that is blending old and new rather than replacing with new ones. This move was more recognised to the public.

The conservation guidelines for apartment owners at Tiong Bahru (URA 2012, viewed 1 January 2019).

As it was the first public housing estate, Tiong Bahru may represents some meaning or memory to Singaporean, especially to the first generation. Even though the preservation project might consider political factor as part of building national identity, it’s interestingly to see those kinds of historic or artistic heritage was retained through this way. This design initiative reflected some particular contexts of Singapore on their heritage site, which is a by-product that made by their history, cultural and politics.

Reference list:

Mahtani, S. 2012, Residents – and some developers – push for preservation, Newspapers, Dow Jones & Company Inc, viewed 17 December 2018, <ProQuest database>

Ostwald, K. 2014, Engineering identity: the role of the state in shaping ethnic and civic identity in Singapore and Malaysia, PhD thesis, University of California San Diego, viewed 12 December 2018, <ProQuest database>.

To K., Chong, A. & Chong, K. 2014, ‘Identity of a conserved housing estate: the case of Tiong Bahru, Singapore’, Traditional dwellings and settlements working paper series, vol. 254,  viewed 14 December 2018, <https://www.researchgate.net/publication/277249984_Identity_of_a_Conserved_Housing_Estate_The_Case_of_Tiong_Bahru_Singapore>.

URA n.d., ‘Tiong Bharu Estate, Singapore’, viewed 14 December 2018, <https://www.ura.gov.sg/Conservation-Portal/Resources/Articles.aspx?bldgid=TNBHR1>.

URA 2003, Annual Report 2002/2003, viewed 12 December 2018, < https://www.ura.gov.sg/Corporate/About-Us/Annual-Reports>.

URA 2004, Annual Report 2003/2004, viewed 14 December 2018, < https://www.ura.gov.sg/Corporate/About-Us/Annual-Reports&gt;.

URA 2012, ‘Tiong Bahru general guidelines’, viewed 18 December 2018, <https://www.ura.gov.sg/Conservation-Portal/Guidelines-Procedures/Browse-Guidelines-and-Procedures?bldgid=TNBHR1&gt;.

URA 2013, ‘Skyline Jul/Aug 2013: The art and architecture of Tiong Bharu’, viewed 14 December 2018, <https://www.ura.gov.sg/Conservation-Portal/Resources/Articles.aspx?bldgid=TNBHR1>.

Visit Singapore 2018, Hunting for inspiration at Tiong Bahru, viewed 17 December 2018, <https://www.visitsingapore.com/walking-tour/culture/in-the-neighbourhood-tiong-bahru/>.

Image reference:

Culture trip 2018, ‘The top 10 things to do in Tiong Bahru, Singapore’, viewed 1 January 2019, <https://theculturetrip.com/asia/singapore/articles/the-top-10-things-to-do-and-see-in-tiong-bahru/&gt;

URA 2012, ‘Tiong Bahru general guidelines’, viewed 1 January 2019, <https://www.ura.gov.sg/Conservation-Portal/Guidelines-Procedures/Browse-Guidelines-and-Procedures?bldgid=TNBHR1&gt;.