Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts, 36th Storey, PSA Building, 460 Alexandra Road, Singapore 119963. Tel: 3757794/5
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SPEECH BY MR KOO TSAI KEE, PARLIAMENTARY SECRETARY FOR NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, AT THE 1997 ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE AWARDS PRESENTATION ON WED, 9 JULY 1997 AT 10.00 AM AT THE JUBILEE HALL, RAFFLES HOTEL
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
Our building conservation programme started ten years ago. We have made remarkable progress in conserving and preserving our built heritage. We can measure our success in three ways - quantity, quality and an appreciation of our heritage buildings.
Firstly, quantity. We have restored more than 2,000 buildings. This is 40 per cent of the 5,344 heritage buildings identified for conservation and preservation. Many more buildings are in the midst of being restored. It is a significant number considering the complexity of restoration works and the initial lack of experience in this new field. When we started out, we had no established building conservation guidelines. We began from scratch and continuously refined the guidelines as we went along. Today, I am proud to say that URA has established a good framework of guidelines to help our developers in their restoration works.
Secondly, quality, by which I mean the quality of our restoration works. Restoration works are highly demanding. Architectural details must be carefully restored to their original forms. Quantity without quality is meaningless. This is what URA's annual Architectural Heritage Awards is all about - to promote and recognise high quality standards in our building conservation works.
The URA is introducing two new measures to further enhance the quality of restoration works. It is releasing today the first three of seven sets of technical leaflets to guide architects and building owners in certain areas of restoration works.
The second measure is the introduction of an express lane scheme for the submission of conservation development applications. URA will grant this privilege to all Architectural Heritage Award winners for one year.
I hope that these new initiatives will encourage you as professionals and building owners to achieve higher standards of restoration works.
Let me now touch on the third criterion in evaluating the success of our conservation efforts. This is the "soft" aspect of promoting public awareness and appreciation of our built heritage. The main objective of our building conservation programme is to conserve our built heritage to provide the vital link with our past. The buildings that we are conserving represent our rich historical, architectural and multi-cultural heritage. Our success in our building conservation programme will not be complete if we cannot get our people to appreciate our built heritage that we are conserving. This represents the next phase of our building conservation programme - to promote public awareness and appreciation of our built heritage.
To achieve this important objective, several government agencies are already embarking on various initiatives to popularise our built heritage and to draw Singaporeans to these places. The National Heritage Board and the Ministry of Education are designing heritage trails, and popularising cultural and heritage stories of places like the Singapore River and Kampong Glam through the production of CDs and publications. URA and LTA are building pedestrian malls in Chinatown and will bring back the evening bazaars in the streets to woo visitors to this historical area. STPB is developing thematic zones to enhance the characteristics of our ethnic historical areas.
As developers and building owners, you play an important role in enhancing the attraction of the heritage areas. Take the revitalised Boat Quay as a successful example. The URA provided the vision and infrastructure to develop this historical place for al fresco dining. It modified regulations to accommodate the enterprising spirit that is vital to making the place a commercial success. The rest was up to the business community. They formed a self-help business association to market the place. They brought in fresh, novel entertainment ideas. They organised activities on the mall and along the river, and tied up with STPB's promotional events. Their efforts paid off. Today, Boat Quay is a lively place day and night.
To complement the efforts of the private sector, the URA is today launching their Internet Website that provides information on our built heritage and building conservation programme. This will help to create public awareness of our built heritage.
Let me now congratulate the winners of this year's URA Architectural Heritage Awards. I hope your success will encourage you and other building owners to make our building conservation programme a greater success.