The conservation-redevelopment dilemma in Singapore: The case of the Kampong Glam historic district

Conservation-redevelopment conflicts are increasingly gaining prominence on the urban agendas of cities in the developing world. This paper examines the role urban conservation plays within the broader framework of national ideology and policies in Singapore, a city which faces intensive redevelopment pressures. It explains how, from the perspective of the state, redevelopment and conservation can both be accommodated within the ambit of modernist planning and goals. After outlining various preservation and conservation schemes initiated by state agencies, the paper goes on to argue that, contrary to state rhetoric and despite the fact that conservation is given some priority in the planning of the city, the conservation-redevelopment dilemma has not been solved but has taken on new dimensions in the 1990s. Specifically, the paper shows by means of a case study of the Kampong Glam Historic District that conflict arises because gazetted monuments and conservation areas often slice up the organic form and texture of cultural hearths in an arbitrary fashion, legislating boundaries between a defended zone perceived to be of historical value and an excluded landscape, which is threatened with excision.