Building Blocks of Heritage

Posted by phyne under Uncategorized
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The urban landscape in Singapore did not just change overnight. Explore Singapore’s built heritage and see how the demands of Singapore’s growth are balanced in urban planning and design, at the Singapore Storeys guided tour by the Singapore City Gallery. Together with 20 other visitors, I was pleasantly greeted by our guide who took us on a tour of the 3-storey City Gallery at URA last Saturday.

What are these visitors pointing and looking at?

I bet they are finding their own neighbourhoods in this detailed 3-D model of Singapore. In fact, every apartment block is featured here, in the form of ‘building blocks’ which are 5,000 times smaller than the original.

I can see my home from here!


After an introduction, the guide brought us to the Orientation section of the Gallery, where we were tested in this wacky interactive quiz show hosted by Gurmit Singh and learned more about fun facts on Singapore’s land use, built heritage, nature environment and more!

Participants were entertained by the quiz show, especially after finding out some bizarre but true facts.

The guide fast forwarded us to the future with Concept Plan 2001, which showed the city planning and allocation catered for an estimated population of 5.5 million in 40 to 50 years’ time. He also shared an interesting account on how public feedback requesting Pulau Ubin to be kept in its natural state, was addressed in this plan.

I strayed away from the tour when this Skycam pandered to my voyeuristic curiosity. I was able to control the camera, which was placed on the roof of the URA building, and found myself overlooking the area. One can even zoom in clearly on the real time activities in the area.

The group enjoyed a bird’s eye view of how Singapore’s city centre would have looked from a height of 400 storeys (about 1.6km above sea level). This massive Central Area Model, scaled down by 400 times, is one of the largest architectural models in the world.

The Singapore City Gallery has even have updated the model with the Singapore Flyer at Marina Bay! This model certainly reminds me of the plastic wheel used while playing Game of Life. =P


A popular sight in Singapore, shophouses can be traced back to the 1840s. They were probably the forerunner in the concept of ‘home office’, as the top storey may be used as homes, while the ground floor may be used as shops. Today, private owners have restored the shophouses to their former glory using them as residences, small offices and home offices.

Used as a display platform here, this marble topped table would be familiar to customers who ate at Katong Confectionary in the past. It is unique as it has a circular foot-rest below, which is not usually found on other similar tables.


Visitors scrutinizing this comprehensive area photograph showing the entire Singapore! It was the only such photograph taken in 2002, at 3,000 metres above sea level.

One can find many touchscreen interactives, suitable for both the young and old in their journey of self-discovery. One of the touchscreen programmes can also be found online:
http://www.ura.gov.sg/gallery/spore_central_area/index.html

Interested to also go on a guided tour on Singapore’s built heritage? Check out the timings and rates here: http://www.ura.gov.sg/gallery/latestevents.html
Singapore Storeys is part of Explore Singapore! which happens from 10 November 2007 to 31 December 2007. For more information on Explore Singapore!, visit http://www.museums.com.sg/explore or call 62214463.