Without architecture, we cannot remember

Source : Straits Times - 13 Aug 2008

THIS National Day, Kit Chan’s 1998 song, Home, seems relevant as ever. “This is Home, surely, as my senses tell me,” she croons.

My senses don’t seem to agree. The primary school I studied in just six years ago has been razed; my secondary school’s hall, stadium and (most importantly) canteen, I can no longer recognise.

Buildings as physical reminders of the past form perhaps the strongest of our cultural associations with a place. John Ruskin once remarked, “Without architecture, we cannot remember.” So when we have strong associations with a building, it forms a part of our identity and it is imperative that we conserve it. For if the building is removed, most or all of the bond with the place goes with it.

Singapore’s architectural heritage is largely confined to some colonial buildings in the Civic District, the racial heritage zones and novel but pointless things like our first bus stop.

However, even these are under severe threat in modern Singapore. The demolition of our first bus stop may have been averted, but such wondrous buildings as City Hall and the old Supreme Court have fallen prey to a plan which could diminish their charm.

The National Art Gallery, due to open in 2012, will join these two monuments with floating bridges; between the two buildings, a giant glass box, populated with giant steel trees.

The facade’s integrity will be maintained (by law), but inside, the buildings will have lost much of their character. I envisage it being quite difficult to relive Mountbatten securing the surrender of the Japanese in City Hall when there are alien staircases hovering above me. And Norman Foster’s spaceship in the background surely won’t make the view from the Padang any prettier.

I fear the same tragic fate awaits the two buildings as befell Dempsey Village. An outpost that was once rustic, quaint and comfortingly anachronistic has now been overrun by rowdy seafood restaurants and hip bars.

A similar invasion is planned for the Gallery, where only a fifth of floor space is to be for exhibitions, with shops and restaurants that hope to make it the city’s next “lifestyle destination” taking up the rest of the area. It does not seem as if the Gallery will be any different from the upcoming Ion Orchard or indeed, the rest of Singapore.

“There’ll always be Singapore,” Chan goes on to sing. True, our little red dot will grow bigger and glow brighter, yet somehow, I believe we may end up bereft of true attachment to Singapore, and that may be the biggest tragedy of all.

Rahul Ahluwalia