Conserve a building, save the planet.
Essay by Chang Jiat Hwee, Ho Weng Hin and Tan Kar Lin. The article is published in The Straits Times Opinion section on 12 November 2020.
There’s a new reason to preserve Singapore’s landmark modernist buildings: the reduction of carbon emissions by extending their lives instead of demolishing them.
Many heritage enthusiasts have been discussing the value of 1950s-1970s modernist icons as cultural capital that embodies the visionary ideals and architectural prowess of Singapore’s pioneering planners, developers, builders and architects.
But buildings such as Golden Mile Complex - which the Urban Redevelopment Authority has recently proposed for conservation, People’s Park Complex and Wing On Life Building are not just cultural capital that speaks to our sense of history. They are also environmental capital suggesting a pathway to a low carbon future.
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