[SINGAPORE] The Republic’s skyline today is filled with many modern skyscrapers. As the population and the economy grow, expect more new buildings to emerge to meet growing needs for spaces to live, work and play.
Nonetheless, Singapore is acclaimed internationally for its conservation efforts – entire districts and not just single buildings have been conserved. Historic districts include Boat Quay, Chinatown, Kampong Glam and Little India.
The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), which formulates strategic plans to guide Singapore’s physical development, is also the country’s conservation authority.
The URA sees conserving the built heritage as a vital part of Singapore’s development and urban planning. Conservation started in the 1970s and over 7,000 buildings have been conserved since then.
In large part, owners conserve buildings in Singapore because this is done profitably. Conserved shophouses in the city centre, which are increasingly viewed as trophy assets for the super-rich, have seen strong price growth through the decades.
These conserved shophouses stay relevant by serving diverse uses including as office, dining, living, recreational and hospitality spaces.
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As Singapore continues transforming, the drive for sustainability creates an even greater need to conserve and reuse old buildings.
Keeping an existing building instead of demolishing it and building a new one avoids embodied carbon from redevelopment. Embodied carbon represents the carbon emissions released during the life cycle of building materials, including extraction, manufacturing, transport, construction and disposal.
Keep residential blocks beyond 50 years
Perhaps, much more should be done to conserve and reuse old private apartment blocks.
Over the years, there have been numerous successful en bloc sales of condo developments which are around 20 to 30 years old. Relatively “young” buildings were then torn down as developers built new buildings. In turn, some of these redevelopments doubled or tripled the number of homes occupying a particular site.
Meanwhile, vendors of en bloc sites did well financially and avoided the risks posed by land lease decay in the case of sites with original land leases of 99 years.
With sustainability in mind, should more be done to keep private housing blocks standing for at least 50 years?
Currently, the threshold required for a collective sale to proceed is support of at least 80 per cent of owners by share value and strata area for developments that are 10 years or older, and 90 per cent for newer developments.
These thresholds could be tightened to 95 per cent support for developments that are under 20 years old, 90 per cent for developments that are 20 years or older but less than 50 years, and 80 per cent for developments that are 50 years or older.
Concurrently, lower support thresholds could apply to collective sales where the new owner keeps the existing building(s).
Developers who buy residential en bloc sites could also be encouraged to retain existing buildings, whether through lower land betterment charge (LBC) rates, lower rates for topping up land leases to 99 years or giving bonus gross floor area.
Developers pay an LBC for the right to enhance the use of some sites or to build bigger projects on them. The rates are stated according to use groups across various geographical sectors.
Conserving Golden Mile Complex
A case study of Golden Mile Complex along Beach Road shows how incentives are vital in making building conservation work.
In 2021, Golden Mile Complex became the first modern large-scale, strata-titled development that the URA gazetted for conservation. Conserved buildings cannot be demolished, and works carried out on them have to comply with strict guidelines.
Completed in 1973, Golden Mile Complex, which was designed by Singapore pioneer architects Tay Kheng Soon, Gan Eng Oon and William Lim, is an example of the modern architectural style known as brutalism. The complex was designed as a vertical city housing mixed uses and boasted a unique step-terraced profile.
After Golden Mile Complex was given conservation status, a consortium of Perennial, Sino Land and Far East Organization bought the property from its strata owners via a collective sale.
The consortium is refurbishing the conserved complex, which is being renamed The Golden Mile. It is likely that the project’s economics are greatly helped by the URA giving permission for four storeys of office space to be added to the conserved complex.
Slated to complete in 2029, the 22-storey The Golden Mile will feature offices, medical suites and retail spaces.
The consortium also received approval to build Aurea, a 45-storey residential tower with 188 units, which will be connected to The Golden Mile via a link bridge. Building a residential tower likely helps substantially with the consortium’s financial returns.
When completed, the mixed development Golden Mile Singapore, comprising The Golden Mile and Aurea, could become an architectural landmark and a buzzing place that meets evolving user needs, thereby helping revitalise Beach Road and the Ophir-Rochor corridor.
While many existing older buildings here lack the Golden Mile Complex’s architectural importance, they might be worth keeping too.
What Golden Mile Singapore’s development shows is that profit-driven property groups can take on conserved buildings and breathe new life into them with the right conditions.
The URA’s Draft Master Plan 2025 includes the proposed conservation of more sites and buildings including the NatSteel Steel Pavilion, the former Pasir Panjang English School and selected buildings at Bukit Timah Turf City.
It is timely to extend building conservation efforts as well as refresh how private apartments are being sold en bloc and redeveloped in Singapore.
A buyer may have reservations over a new home that is housed in say a 60-year-old building. Here lies the challenge for developers and architects to craft products that wow the consumer and create product acceptance.
I think our developers and architects can rise to the challenge of providing great new homes to consumers in buildings that are over half a century old. Moreover, increasingly sustainability-conscious buyers may gladly pay more to live in a new home that is housed in an old building with good bones.
Let’s cater to growing demand for homes and other physical spaces in a sustainable way by thoughtfully adapting old buildings to meet constantly evolving needs of users.
