{"id":17574,"date":"2024-09-09T18:41:30","date_gmt":"2024-09-09T10:41:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/?post_type=ac-news&p=17574"},"modified":"2026-04-27T19:18:46","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:18:46","slug":"preservation-vs-progress","status":"publish","type":"ac-news","link":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/arclab\/news\/preservation-vs-progress\/","title":{"rendered":"Preservation vs Progress"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n\r\n\t\t\t\t\"Screenshot-2026-04-27-at-7.13.58\u202fPM-scaled.png\"\r\n\t

by\u00a0Chloe Henville<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

\r\n

Pedestrians walk by, unfazed by a cacophony of power tools whirring and roaring. The noise feels deafening even with the towering sound barriers. Signs apologise for the inconvenience. It seems like you can’t go a block without spotting a construction site, workers sweating under glaring sun in the thick, wet Singaporean air. These plots of dirt and rubble littering the island will become modern, multi-storey buildings. Fresh. Clean. New.<\/p>\r\n

According to\u00a02023 research<\/a>\u00a0by Stacked Homes, most residential projects in Singapore are redeveloped after 19 to 24 years. This means new construction is torn down, on average, barely two decades after being finished.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t\t\"Heritage\r\n\t\tHeritage sites are dwarfed by residential buildings. Photo: Chloe Henville.\r\n\t

With the omnipresent evidence of advancing infrastructure, thoughts turn to the short, squat properties of the past. The heritage buildings.<\/p>\r\n

141 Neil Road is an unassuming building nestled in a row of terrace houses. From the footpath, the crumbling fa\u00e7ade is hidden by a tall, slatted fence. If you take a step back and crane your neck, the second storey pokes out with defiantly shuttered windows and ornate plasters designs which are creaking and cracking.<\/p>\r\n

Stepping through, you’re greeted by terracotta floor tiles, and plaster walls skirted in floral painted tiles. The original features and elaborate details are foggy with over a century of use and disuse. They’re waiting to be polished to a former glory – a raw diamond to be cut to show its’ brilliance.<\/p>\r\n

The shophouses’ 1880’s time of birth is very rare for Singapore.<\/p>\r\n

Barely 6.9 metres wide, it has a footprint of just 297 metres squared.<\/p>\r\n

“It’s a small building, it’s not a grand building, only two and a half stories,” says Dr Nikhil Joshi. “It’s [worth] nine million dollars<\/strong>.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\r\n

But to Dr Joshi,<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n

this specific shophouse is worth much more than its land value for developers. It’s located in the Blair Plains Conservation area.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\r\n

In 1986 the Urban Redevelopment Authority launched its Conservation Master Plan, earmarking six historical sites for conservation, including Little India and Chinatown. This marked a shift of government priorities, pushing preservation to the forefront, alongside redevelopment.<\/p>\r\n\t\t\t\t\"The\r\n\t\tThe exterior looks rundown. Photo: Chloe Henville.\r\n\t\t\t\t\"The\r\n\t\tThe first floor shows original features. Photo: Chloe Henville.\r\n\t

Continue reading here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","ac-news-category":[27],"class_list":["post-17574","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\/17574","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=17574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ac-news-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cde.nus.edu.sg\/arch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ac-news-category?post=17574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}