Should Tiong Bahru’s SIT flats be conserved?
Posted by noelbynature under Buildings and Monuments
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Tiong Bahru is one of the oldest housing estates in Singapore, and so it’s no surprise that it now holds a special place in Singaporeans’ hearts. Alvin from the Tiong Bahru Estate blog is hosting a discussion on Facebook on whether the post-war SIT (Singapore Improvement Trust) flats should be conserved or not:
Alvin’s introduction to the discussion:
This discussion was motivated by Kelvin Ang, a heritage conservationist, who kept telling me that HDB has done a survey (probably eons ago) that the residents in these Post War S.I.T. flats would like to be part of Selective En-bloc Redevelopment Scheme (SERS).
Since HDB’s findings and my own perspectives at the ground is at the opposite end of the spectrum, I thought I will start the ball rolling by asking everyone here to just put in a VOTE.
Your vote can be a very simple YES, NO, MAYBE or NOT DECIDED.
You are most welcome to volunteer more information so that everyone can gain from your thought process.
Put in your two cents worth here. There are quite a few articles already on Yesterday.sg about Tiong Bahru - for example, you can read about one student’s exploration of Tiong Bahru, or even go back in time and read about how it was like to live in Tiong Bahru during the day.
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Posted by: peter
Posted on: February 7th, 2010
I understand URA has classified the estate to be under conservation status (Is this the same as preservation status????). This means it cannot be demolished. Also HDB has come up with a policy that no units can change the facade.
Posted by: Marc
Posted on: September 19th, 2011
Peter is right... the area is already gazetted as conservation by URA, so it's kind of a moot discussion. But my two cents worth... conservation is a double edged sword. The demographics of the area are rapidly changing and so demand for repurposed spaces (ie more retail/services/f&b) is latent but can't be realised because URA is resistant to rezoning. Some people are going ahead anyway, probably in contravention of URA's conservation rules. Although I'd certainly hate to see any building in Tiong Bahru demolished, the other side of the coin is that vibrancy and freedom to realise the potential of a space can also be hampered by conservation laws.
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