The Future of Singapore’s Recent Past

The divergence of views over historical buildings has highlighted the inherent conflict between the state’s developmentalist ethos shaped by its 1960s modernist urban renewal agenda, and the public desire for a more inclusive approach to urban planning that takes into account intangible values such as social memories.

This was the case with the old National Library on Stamford Road, a modern structure completed in 1960 and demolished in 2004 to make way for a traffic tunnel in anticipation of a new university campus. The announcement of the imminent demolition was met with a groundswell of dissent and sparked an unprecedented public debate on topics of conservation and cultural heritage in Singapore. Pro-conser­vation advocates argued for the library as an important shared civic space imbued with collective memories of generations of Singaporeans, transcending religious, ethnic, and cultural differences. For the authorities, however, the building did not possess sufficient  architectural merit or historical value to be considered worthy of  conservation.

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