A game-changing golden opportunity : the conservation of post-independence and private-owned buildings in the city centre of Singapore : the case of Golden Mile Complex

Abstract

The Singapore’s built conservation movement has progressed greatly since the formalisation of the conservation programme under the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) in 1989 with close to 7,200 buildings gazetted the conservation status along with 74 buildings that were classified as national monuments. This list of buildings comprises largely of buildings built before 1965 with only a few from the immediate post-independence years. A large number of reinforced concrete buildings were built during this period as the young nation progressed rapidly supported by aspiring young local architects. They were mainly large-scale and private-own buildings in the city area with significant architectural value that demonstrate the vision of the time. However, since the mid-2000s, many have been under the threat of real estate market forces via collective sales and some were eventually demolished for redevelopment. On 26 October 2021, the Golden Mile Complex became the first large-scale and privately-own modern building to be given a conservation status and gifted with a wealth of incentives and policy flexibility to adaptive-reuse. The impact of the policy was still awaiting to be seen as the building is in process of going through a collective sale and any concrete proposal would take late several years to be realised. This dissertation traces the development in Singapore built conservation movement and journey leading to the conservation of Golden Mile Complex; discuss the emerging issues and opportunities arising from the conservation of Golden Mile Complex and its potential impacts on Singapore’s built environment in the future.