Retention of Siglap HDB block shows everyday, ordinary buildings matter

SINGAPORE – Block 1 East Coast Road is a squat, five-storey HDB block on the corner of East Coast Road and Siglap Road that does not particularly stand out.

Yet after The Straits Times

reported on Oct 5 that the authorities would repurpose

the 61-year-old building, reversing an earlier decision to demolish it and redevelop the site, netizens gushed about the news.

On social media, netizens called Block 1 and the cluster of flats around it their “childhood place” and a beloved landmark in Siglap from decades gone by.

To many of these people, the building was a reminder of yesteryear, the kind that seems to be increasingly rare in Singapore these days. Their reactions also showed that everyday, mundane buildings can have significant heritage value.

Built in 1963 on the site of a kampung that had been destroyed by a fire, the flats in Blocks 1 to 4 East Coast Road were among the earliest delivered by the then nascent Housing Board.

While they have been vacant since 2015, in the 52 years that those flats were in use, they were the only public housing in Siglap, an enclave of private homes.

They have also been a constant in a neighbourhood that has lost other landmarks such as the old Siglap Market.

Previously, all four blocks were slated for demolition under a Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) project announced in 2011. Now, Block 1 will be retained for public use after the authorities put out a tender for consultants to oversee the building’s refurbishment, while its three neighbouring blocks will be torn down by 2026.

Observers have described the buildings as “architecturally unremarkable” and not the kind to be admired, but the recent public reaction is evidence that even the most nondescript buildings can be treasured by the communities that lived, worked and grew up around them.

Architectural photographer Darren Soh said the built environment “does not only consist of heroic and iconic structures” like those in the Central Business District, pointing out that ordinary spaces and buildings also contribute to the lived experiences and memories of Singaporeans.

“MRT stations, bus interchanges, town and neighbourhood centres and other HDB blocks could all be important to different people, depending on who you ask,” said Mr Soh.

He added that these buildings “also bear the architectural time stamp of their era, and some may become unique or rare”, as other buildings of their vintage are torn down and redeveloped.

The East Coast Road block is of a style, or typology, that HDB has not built since the 1960s, and is an example of the Housing Board’s earliest public flats.

Mr Soh said retaining everyday structures like Block 1 is important “if only to serve as a reminder of a time gone by”.

Heritage advocates have welcomed the decision to keep Block 1, but have also called for greater effort to protect what they described as Singapore’s “everyday heritage”.

Founding chair Ho Weng Hin of non-profit heritage group Docomomo Singapore said policymakers need to give “greater recognition for the social and urban significance of such buildings”.

“(These buildings) may not always be aesthetically outstanding, but certainly are precious in the eyes of the communities who use them and are anchors of identity for the areas they are in,” he said.

Mr Ho pointed to the

10-storey HDB blocks in Tanglin Halt,

which were vacated under a 2014 Sers project, as an example of buildings which hold considerable social and historical significance and should be assessed for retention.

The 1960s-built blocks have over time become landmarks of Queenstown, and were colloquially referred to as chap lau chu (“10-storey house” in Hokkien).

While 21 of the 31 blocks under the Sers project have been

selected for use as interim rental housing,

the HDB has said all the blocks will eventually be demolished for new developments.

Architectural historian Yeo Kang Shua has suggested that public agencies could be more transparent with the framework they use to determine whether or not to keep certain buildings.

Otherwise, moves to keep some structures but demolish others can make these decisions seem ad hoc, he said.

He added that the decision to retain Block 1 East Coast Road – made after the authorities studied how land use in the area could be optimised – is evidence that protecting heritage and redevelopment does not have to be a zero-sum game.

Some other “everyday” structures that the authorities have retained or are considering keeping include

six blocks in Dakota Crescent

and some of the

Singapore Improvement Trust-built blocks in Tanglin Halt.

As for what to do with old buildings such as Block 1 once they are retained, developers could look to Hong Kong’s Mei Ho House for inspiration.

Built in 1954, Mei Ho House was among the first public housing blocks in Hong Kong, after a devastating fire in the Shek Kip Mei squatter area in December 1953.

It is today a youth hostel and museum showcasing Hong Kong’s public housing history that has become a tourist attraction.

For Block 1, the authorities have said they are open to reconfiguring the internal layout of the block, but Dr Yeo suggested that some of the original two-room flat units could be retained as examples of early HDB flat layouts, similar to what was done in Mei Ho House.

Some of the original materials could also be salvaged and installed in the refurbished building so that the block’s original look and feel can be retained, he added.

“Structures like Block 1 that are cherished by communities may not have the grandiose or historical significance of national monuments, but they are no less valuable,” said Dr Yeo.