Main Feature

In recent years, conservation projects in Asia involving cultural properties have gained increasing sophistication and respectability. Yet, like the proverbial tale about how different vision-impaired individuals feeling up an elephant would perceive the beast differently, the conservation of an old building presents different facets of experience to different stakeholders. To the public, they preserve a slice of history and a sense of place; to the architect, a deference to the existing order of things and a delicate reconciliation of the old to new uses; to the engineers, the challenge of up-keeping and supplementing structural and environmental performance; to the contractor, the prospect of unknown and inhibiting obstacles; and to the owner, the hope that the returns will justify the investments.

Quite often, the team of consultants that will work on a conservation project will be larger than one working on a comparable building on a green field site. In addition to the usual disciplines, one might find on board the archaeologist, the art historian, the craftsmen with specialised skills related to traditional materials, the conservation architect, etc. If the building becomes a listed one, the development period can last longer than one undertaken on a new building; from the time taken for initial research, measured surveys and closer consultation with multiple government agencies, to the careful protection of existing supports while new or remedial works are carried out. Depending on the architectural merit of the building concerned and its state of decay, regulatory guidelines governing the scope and extent of new and restorative works on old structures can also be wide-ranging and punitive. While generally more economical to refurbish than to rebuild, the calculations will be skewed differently if the building concerned sits on an area with rising land values and increased plot ratios. Experienced contractors working on historic structures will also factor in a larger sum of money for 'contingencies' than they would on equivalent new structures. Given the multiple demands and unknowns that preserving an old building could pose and the relentless pressure for 'modernisation' and 'newness' found in many Asian cities, it is worth asking what motivates either a governing body or a prospective developer to choose conserving and rehabilitating a building over demolishing it for a clean slate. If it is not necessarily cheaper and faster to retrofit an old building for new uses, why not purpose-build a new one? The short answer to this: the emotional value attached to the property concerned.

Hence, to speak of structures that have endured merely as buildings may have done scant justice to the social and cultural significance that they would have attained over time. Indeed, some of them may be architectural jewels that are representative of the era they were built in while others would have earned the affection of a community from familiar usage. The significant architecture of the past are a repository of the larger human story; the longer the building's life, the richer the narration. We see in them the intangible values behind a place, and the personalities behind the buildings, and it is not uncommon for buildings to be personalised with a name of a dignitary or its original builder; hence, it's the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, the House of Tan Yeok Nee, the Victoria Memorial Hall, the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion, the Raffles Hotel, etc.

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Chu Lik Ren is a practising architect based in Singapore. He is also a part-time tutor at the National University of Singapore and Singapore Polytechnic. In the 1990s, he worked in Singapore's PWD, where he was the project architect involved in the preservation of the historic Tao Nan school building and its conversion to the Asian Civilisations Museum (it is today the Peranakan Museum). Since 2000, he has been a regular contributing writer to various architectural journals.