Photographer: Chee Boon Pin
Characters of Light1 was one of the first photo-books to capture the beauty of Singapore’s built heritage in the 1950s on the cusp of great change. The book is significant in offering a fascinating glimpse of old Singapore. Its author, Majorie Doggett, who came to Singapore in 1947 and became a citizen in 1961, was also considered by architectural historian Dr Julian Davidson as “one of the finest photographers of her time working in Singapore”. Through thoroughly researched texts, Majorie brought the buildings to life. “A building remains like a cold stone monument unless it is possible to visualise the sort of person who constructed it and lived in it,” she said in her 1985 edition.
Pastel Portraits (1984) by Gretchen Liu and Living Legacy (1994) by Professor Robert Powell inspired greater interest in Singapore’s rich pre-war architecture with their well-illustrated records and served to support the hard-fought conservation battles during the crucial periods. The Singapore Shophouse (2010) deepened people’s understanding of the shophouse. Its author, Dr Julian Davidson, has been passionately researching and documenting Singapore’s architectural heritage for many years.
Three publication series produced by URA in the 1980s and 1990s served as important guides for professionals and owners of conservation buildings to appreciate the value of conservation and understand important considerations in restoring the buildings and shaping the streetscapes in the historic districts.
Initial manuals for Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Gelam (1988) were published as part of the Conservation Master Plan to solicit feedback from professionals. The manuals presented the planning and urban design considerations for the historic districts, architectural characteristics and restoration principles and conservation guidelines. An updated series with similar themes was published in 1995.
In raising the conservation and restoration standards in the 1990s, the book, Objectives, Principles and Standards for Preservation and Conservation (1993), was an important guide by URA and the Preservation Monuments Board. It detailed key principles such as the “3Rs – maximum retention, sensitive restoration, careful repair” which continue to be used today.
To keep pace with advancements in the practice, the Conservation Technical Handbook was published from 2016 in collaboration with ICOMOS Singapore.
In addition to the publications, smaller leaflets produced presented regular insights on conservation guidelines and considerations on specific building types and elements over the years. To help owners on restoring their buildings, smaller “Do It Right” guides have been produced, such as for Tiong Bahru.
With a deeper appreciation for the built heritage and collective identities, recent books are presenting more intimate stories and the lives of residents and others within historic neighbourhoods. Examples are On a little hill in Chinatown: Singapore’s Ann Siang Hill (2010) by legal historian and scholar Kevin Tan, 17A Keong Saik Road (2018) by Charmaine Leong and Leluhur Singapore’s Kampong Gelam (2019) by Hidayah Amin.
Charmaine who grew up in Keong Saik hopes that “people can remember Keong Saik as a place where our forebears had come to settle from China, worked hard to make a living, and left an imprint here.” She adds: “It was not merely streets that provided entertainment to pleasure seekers, but a place where a community of people, despite their difficulties, persevered in working towards the hope of a better future.
Keong Saik can, and should, serve as an inspiration, or a reminder, of how far Singapore has come as a country made up mainly of immigrants who left their home countries to make a life for themselves.”
1 Characters of Light was first published in 1957 and republished in 1985. A recent publication, Majorie Doggett’s Singapore (2019) offers another fresh view of old Singapore and Majorie’s personal life.