Catholic JC campus could house other schools undergoing revamps or be returned to the state
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The school’s site is currently surrounded by land that has been developed for housing or set aside for such use.
ST PHOTO: KEVIN LIM
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- MOE will assess Catholic Junior College's (CJC) Whitley Road campus for interim use after its move to Punggol in 2034; otherwise the 5.6ha site returns to the state.
- Analysts suggest the site and surrounding land will likely be redeveloped for low-rise, low-density uses to maintain the area's character.
- Heritage experts highlight the historical value of bungalows in Malcolm Park and Swiss Cottage, urging retention due to their unique architectural detailing.
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SINGAPORE – Catholic Junior College’s (CJC) campus in Whitley Road could be used by the Ministry of Education (MOE) as a holding site for other schools undergoing renovation after the school relocates to Punggol
Shortly after the school’s planned move in 2034 was announced, the ministry said on Jan 16 that it will assess the need to keep the school’s buildings for other uses, such as a holding site for schools undergoing upgrading.
If the ministry has no plans for the 5.6ha site, it will be returned to the state.
“The future plans for the site will be studied by agencies, taking into consideration the site context, including surrounding developments, traffic conditions and other infrastructure requirements,” MOE said.
The school’s site is currently surrounded by land that has been developed for housing or set aside for such use.
Freeing it for redevelopment will add to about 35ha of land nearby that the authorities have earmarked for new homes.
The 35ha of land comprises the Malcolm Park and Swiss Cottage estates, which have about 30 bungalows from as early as the 1920s that are state properties and are generally leased for residential use for two- or three-year terms.
Analysts told The Straits Times that if redeveloped, they expect that the school site and its surrounds will remain low-rise and low-density to retain the character of the area, which includes land designated for landed homes that have a height limit of two or three storeys.
The school, which has occupied the same site for five decades, is bounded on one end by Whitley Road and the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE).
Dr Felicity Chan, founder of urban planning research consultancy Topo-phi, said CJC is “a historic landmark that made many journeys along the endless nondescript PIE memorable and legible”.
“Located on higher ground and set back from the highway by a generous expansive grassy field, the school campus is an imageable and a significant landmark,” she said, suggesting that the buildings that outline the field and the field itself should be retained for community use at the very least if the whole campus cannot be kept.
Such uses, said Dr Chan, could include a social kitchen, affordable event or gathering spaces for community events or small business owners, and sports club offices.
She added that putting high-rise buildings on the site – housing blocks, for instance – would change the character of the area.
Should new homes be built, she said, low- to medium-rise housing would be more suitable as the form and atmosphere would not disrupt the existing character of the neighbourhood.
Agreeing, Professor Sing Tien Foo said that the school site’s proximity to landed homes would make it difficult for taller buildings to be built there. For this reason, as well as the PIE separating the school site from the upcoming public housing estate in Mount Pleasant, he said it is unlikely that flats will be built on the CJC site as an extension of the future estate.
Prof Sing, the Provost’s Chair Professor at the National University of Singapore’s Department of Real Estate, said low-density use is also more suited to the site as it is not near an MRT station.
As for the 35ha area that includes the Malcolm Park and Swiss Cottage estates, Prof Sing said that he expects that they will be used for low-density homes in the future, again because of the lack of public transport options.
Malcolm Park was among 19 areas with historical value that the Urban Redevelopment Authority said in June 2022 were being studied as part of a heritage plan that will guide future developments
The 30 or so bungalows on the site are not legally protected from redevelopment.
Heritage author and blogger Jerome Lim said there is value in retaining as many of the bungalows as possible, and the landscape of the area. He said that several of the bungalows in Malcolm Road were prototypes for government, municipal and military residences found in various estates in Singapore, including Adam Park, Temenggong Road, the former British naval base in Sembawang and Alexandra Park.
Noting that the bungalows in Malcolm Road and Swiss Cottage were built to house senior European officers and their families, he said they represent some of the oldest municipal and government residences, and that the prototypes “exhibit a level of detailing not found in the simplified versions that were widely adopted elsewhere”.
The prototypes, he said, were successful for their modularity in design, simplicity and their ability to be adapted to various topographies.
“There is hence much to learn from them and how they were designed and built to maximise comfort for their occupants in Singapore’s harsh tropical environment,” said Mr Lim.
