19 colonial bungalows at Adam Park earmarked for conservation, functions may ‘evolve’
19th-century Cantonese temple at Sims Drive also proposed for conservation
A CLUSTER of 19 pre-war bungalows at Adam Park will be proposed for conservation, given the site’s historical significance, and government agencies are studying how functions for conserved buildings might evolve.
The residential buildings, along with a 19th-century Cantonese temple on Sims Drive, were identified for conservation in the lead-up to the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s (URA) Draft Master Plan 2025, said Minister for National Development Desmond Lee on Friday (Nov 8). The statutory land use plan will guide Singapore’s development over the next 10 to 15 years.
In a speech given at the URA’s Architectural Heritage Awards 2024, Lee said the bungalows are “good representatives of the typology of housing” built by the Singapore Improvement Trust in the late 1920s, and remain largely intact today, along with their setting and landscape.
Even as the government conserves buildings and structures, it will ensure that their functions “continue to evolve to serve the needs of present and future generations”, he added.
The authorities will continue to study how to better enhance, maintain and bring out the “important stories and legacy” of such heritage sites, he said.
Conserving such properties also helps to strengthen Singapore’s national identity, Lee said.
Located along Adam Road, the 19 bungalows were built in 1929 by the former Singapore Improvement Trust as housing for the families of officers in the British administration.
It was a site of intense fighting between British forces and the invading Japanese army in World War II, and later housed a prisoner-of-war camp during the Japanese Occupation, said Lee.
“This allows visitors to appreciate the battlefield history of the site as well as the lived experiences associated with them,” he said.
The URA said Mun San Fook Tuck Chee temple at Sims Drive – one of the oldest surviving Cantonese temples in Singapore, built in the 19th century – will be proposed for conservation as well.
In a statement on Friday, the URA said the proposed conservation of the temple and the 19 bungalows aims to protect their built heritage as “important physical markers that capture the collective history and memories” of the city-state and its different communities.
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