{"id":17545,"date":"2022-11-14T16:22:52","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T08:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/?post_type=ac-news&p=17545"},"modified":"2026-05-04T19:36:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T11:36:17","slug":"public-can-observe-restoration-work-up-close-in-conserved-1880s-house-from-2023","status":"publish","type":"ac-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/arclab\/news\/public-can-observe-restoration-work-up-close-in-conserved-1880s-house-from-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Public can observe restoration work up close in conserved 1880s house from 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

\"The The restoration of 141 Neil Road (second from left) will provide students and researchers from NUS with learning and research opportunities.<\/p>\r\n

by Ng Keng Gene<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

from The Straits Times<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

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SINGAPORE –\u00a0From early 2023, the public can observe restoration work up close in a conserved townhouse and learn about how conservators bring back the lustre of Singapore’s heritage buildings.<\/p>\r\n

The restoration of 141 Neil Road, an 1880s house in the Blair Plain conservation area, will also provide students and researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS) with learning and research opportunities.<\/p>\r\n

On Monday, the university’s Department of Architecture, which comes under the NUS College of Design and Engineering, opened the Architectural Conservation Laboratory (ArClab), an educational centre that will be housed in the conserved building.<\/p>\r\n

The building was donated to NUS by the Portabella family, along with a gift of $2 million to support repair and conservation works, which will take place over five years and be completed in 2027.<\/p>\r\n

A fourth-generation member of the family, Mr Ricardo Jr Portabella, said his family has been investing in properties in Singapore since 2008, and currently has 13 shophouses in their portfolio.<\/p>\r\n

Mr Portabella, 25, said his family acquired the Neil Road townhouse in March 2020 with the intention of donating it towards research that would improve local knowledge and expertise in maintaining and conserving shophouses.<\/p>\r\n

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“It was like a blank canvas, with no inhabitants for more than a decade, and we thought it was a good opportunity for contractors and architects to try out new techniques,” he added.<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n

In a statement,\u00a0NUS said that by using the conserved townhouse as a laboratory, ArClab will contribute towards building professional capacity in the management of historical resources, and promoting historical and environmental studies.<\/p>\r\n

Read more at The Straits Times<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","ac-news-category":[27],"class_list":["post-17545","ac-news","type-ac-news","status-publish","hentry","ac-news-category-articles","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac-news\/17545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac-news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/ac-news"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ac-news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac-news-category?post=17545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}