Historic Structure and Dynamics of the Building Stock of Singapore

Articulating the cultural capital embodied in Singapore’s heritage building stock and activating it through scenarios for the preservation of cultural, social, physical, economic and natural resources in Singapore

The rapid urbanization of Singapore has seen it develop from a colonial outpost into a global post-industrial city-state. Today Singapore’s still relatively new built fabric ranges from public and private high-rise housing stock, to flatted factories, leisure and shopping zones, to commercial office towers in the down town area. This process has seen Singapore approach what many regard as the natural limits of its population density and carrying capacity. From the perspective of sustainable, long-term development, the city’s existing building stock constitutes its most substantial concentration of economic capital. Since this recent period of rapid accumulation, issues of the social and cultural significance of the city’s building stock are becoming more important.

This module is focused on the cultural capital that is also concentrated in Singapore’s building stock. The building stock acts both as witness of the recent past and as a potential structuring factor for the future of the city, and so will have a pivotal function in the developments of the next decades. The objective of this module is to articulate the cultural aspects of Singapore’s building stock in the envisioning of the city’s future. It begins by evaluating the cultural dimensions of the existing architectural stock in Singapore. Building on basic documentary work, the module will project a future-oriented approach to architectural heritage. To this end, the module will formulate a series of scenarios for the long-term accumulation and preservation of cultural, social, physical, economic and natural resources in Singapore.