A video on the tomb keeper of Bukit Brown Bukit. For Bukit Brown Index.
I think this gentleman have told me a ghost story in Bukit Brown before.
Showing posts with label Bukit Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bukit Brown. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 11, 2015
Bukit Brown Tomb Keeper featured
A video on the tomb keeper of Bukit Brown Bukit. For Bukit Brown Index.
I think this gentleman have told me a ghost story in Bukit Brown before.
Monday, November 02, 2015
Princess in Bukit Brown
The day that I brought little Princess to have a walk in Bukit Brown. She and I tagged along one of the tours.
Although she was particularly shy dog. She was warm to my nature conservationist friend, Hang Chong.
Although she was particularly shy dog. She was warm to my nature conservationist friend, Hang Chong.
Sunday, August 10, 2014
an adventure out - Mun San Fook Tuck Chee temple
I am impressed with his passion, interest in 'all things taoist temples'. Knowing that quite number of Brownies would also go to this tour, it would be great to be able to meet them and catch up.
The 'fire' dragon is made up of ropes and joss sticks.
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/19th-century-temple-risk-demolition-20140126
Mun San Fook Tuck Chee temple - a sanctuary for coolies during the colonial era - are worried because its Temporary Occupation Licence runs out in June this year. - See more at:
http://www.straitstimes.com/breaking-news/singapore/story/19th-century-temple-risk-demolition-20140126#sthash.ZyDMDKsq.dpuf
Here is a video I shot on this day.
Next, here is another link I found that would make my sketchy experience look even sketchier. But Lim Ching Yee does a much better telling you more about the temple.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
Standing against the destruction of everything
Stop in the name of love....Stop! In the name of love
Before you break my heart
Stop! In the name of love ...
Wednesday, May 21, 2014
The story of 6 golf clubs...
Previously, I joked that we have so many golf clubs and we have not yet created a Golfing star. What a waste of land.
After we kept complaining about too many golf courses in Singapore and why sacrifice Bukit Brown and not Golf Clubs as they are not sustainable and not ECO?
Hence, is this article (below) the URA's response? It shows that maybe they are listening? I am really not sure about that.
I think it is a good thing to re-think land use. However, the argument is not golf over nature or nature over golf. It is too many golf courses on our island. For the case of Bukit Brown, we are asking to consider developing on Golf Courses instead of Bukit Brown.
Master Plan 2013 or this article seem to suggest to me that Bukit Brown will be gone, but golf courses are not spared as well in the new plan.
I believe that the Bukit Brown event is an issue of land contestation which is a recurring issue. I think land-contestation in Singapore is about the struggle of the Singapore 'Soul'. The various stake-holders speak of their vision of Singapore and through that discourse, we find a deeper meaning of how the people make connections with the land.
For example, I would think with nature spaces like woodlands cannot be replaced by gardens. I am not saying that man-made gardens are not nice. I am saying why remove woodlands or forests to make gardens? They are not 'greener'. This is not value-adding. This is like paying money to do some extra work when the work is not really needed in the first place.
We need to re-think the value of our land. We have to re-think how we should make decisions on our land. Some things just can't be reversed. Too bad. We lost Biddari, Old National Library etc. It shouldn't happen again under our watch.
Six golf clubs on land slated for other use
By Rachel Scully
The Straits Times
Published on Nov 21, 2013
In the latest Draft Master Plan 2013, Keppel Club’s greens (right) have been zoned for residential purposes and are ''subject to detailed planning'', while part or all of the land occupied by five other clubs have been labelled ''reserve sites'' - meaning it has not been determined what the specific uses will be. -- ST FILE PHOTO
The six affected clubs are Keppel Club, Tanah Merah Country Club, Orchid Country Club, Warren Golf and Country Club, Jurong Country Club and the National Service Resort and Country Club (NSRCC) in Changi.
Some have leases that expire in 10 years or less, while others still have many years to go, but that may not save them from the axe eventually.
Golf courses typically occupy land zoned for sports and recreation, but this can change.
The master plan, which provides a guide on land use for the next 10 to 15 years, is revised every five years.
In the 2008 plan, the six clubs were on land designated for sports and recreation, but this was changed in the latest draft released yesterday.
The Keppel Club's greens have now been zoned for residential purposes and are "subject to detailed planning".
Part or all of the land occupied by the five other clubs have been labelled "reserve sites" - meaning the specific uses have yet to be determined.
The authorities can allow interim use of the land for purposes that are "compatible with the uses in the locality", according to the Urban Redevelopment Authority zoning interpretation.
The Garden Course at Tanah Merah Country Club, which is bound by the East Coast Parkway and Changi Coast Road, is on land marked as a reserve site. The land used by its other course remains zoned for sports and recreation.
Parts of the NSRCC's nearby Changi course have also been designated as a reserve site.
The other three clubs slated for redevelopment - Warren, Jurong and Orchid - are near housing estates.
The change in land use comes as golf club members await more details of lease extensions early next year. Many tip the clubs with the shortest leases as the ones likely to lose their land, but it seems that those with longer leases may not be spared the axe once their tenure is up.
For example, Jurong Country Club's lease will run out in 22 years, while Warren Golf and Country Club has 15 years left on its lease, with the option to renew it for a further 30 years.
The new Draft Master Plan affirms the Government's move to ensure that land is better utilised.
Law Minister K. Shanmugam noted on his Facebook page last Friday: "In the past, many golf courses were built over land which could not be developed for high-intensity use. We are now able to make better use of some of this land... (and) in the coming years, some golf course land will be redeveloped, to (be) put to higher-intensity use, to meet Singapore's land use needs."
rjscully@sph.com.sg
Copyright © 2013 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Earth Hour at the Singapore Art Museum
I was browsing on Facebook the other day and this advert came up. It featured a review by Huang Li Jie of Unearthed Exhibition @ Singapore Art Museum.Post-Museum is showing a new work called The Bukit Brown Index in this exhibition.
So according to Huang:
Bukit Brown Index with Ho Tzu Nyen's Earth is 'fertile'-ly paired - to show even more 'deeply' the irony of the earth as a source of eternal repose for man and a victim of man's destruction...
I need to go back to see this fertile pairing. Anyway, that's nice that we got a mention. I seem to remember our installation is not complete when Huang visited.
There is also an phone interview not sure if anything came out of it. Anyone saw anything? Let me know thanks.
http://stcommunities.straitstimes.com/show/2014/04/24/earth-hour-singapore-art-museum
BY HUANG LIJIE
Review: Art
UNEARTHED
Singapore Art Museum/Till July 6
The Singapore Art Museum, in its inaugural exhibition as an independent visual arts institution, goes for what is primal - Earth, and man's uneasy relationship with the natural world.
And it is an auspicious start.
The show comprises 30 works by artists based in Singapore and it spans various mediums and practices including psychogeography, the effect of the geographical environment on an individual's emotions, and the art world's current fascination with assemblages by artists as wannabe archivists and anthropologists.
It also includes a complementary exhibition at its annexe in Queen Street, featuring six contemporary art projects from the art residency programme at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, an institute at the Nanyang Technological University which conducts research on geohazards in and around South-east Asia.
The timing of the show, tackling an evergreen theme, proves fortuitous when 10 days after its launch last month, the United Nations' panel on climate change released a hot-button report on the devasting impact and risks of worsening climate worldwide.
Yet the opportune display is not without a potential pitfall; revisiting a time-worn subject could make a public already weary from platitudes about man and nature jaded.
And there are such moments in the exhibition where pieces hew so close to life, they fail to bring art into the picture through a rethinking of substance, form, idea or expression.
Isabelle Desjeux's mixed-media installation, 1,000 Rubber Seeds And One Mutant (2014), is a textbook model of the museum's new direction.
The introductory wall text of the exhibition states this as showing art which intersects with other disciplines as well as different modes of expression and experience.
Desjeux's work, in the second-floor lobby of the museum, make-believes an old-fashioned research laboratory. Wooden shelves stacked against a wall are lined with specimens of rubber seeds while a mutant fruit that failed to explode and disperse its seeds is displayed prominently in a transparent box.
To the left and right of the shelves, tables are set up to invite viewers to scrutinise and make drawings of seeds, and match photographs of them to a corresponding set on display.
The work is about simple theories on life, science and art - mistakes and anomalies sow learning; science and art are like two peas in a pod, rooted in the practice of observation; science as a study of the material world is borne of man and linked to life - but it plays so closely by the book, it ends up flat.
Better are the installations All The Way Down (2014) and Nanyang Meadows (2014) by Lucy Davis, inspired by the stuffing of taxidermic specimens in the collection of the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research.
In Nanyang Meadows, wheat straw used in 1887 to stuff a 4.5m-long crocodile caught in Singapore is artfully laid out behind a transparent case, while All The Way Down brings to light newspaper clippings from the early 1900s that filled the belly of a taxidermic tortoise. The yellowed pages, carrying reports on the landmark mutiny in 1905 on the Russian battleship Potemkin and the 1907 Swatow Rebellion in China, are suspended in a vertical column above a photograph of the specimen.
The display, in a darkened room akin to a natural history gallery with its ghostly picture of the tortoise and metal plate facsimiles of the newspaper clippings that are legible only by torchlight, is milked unnecessarily for drama. But the works point to a new affinity between man and nature, and a fresh way of thinking about their relationship - as reliquaries and embodiments of each other's histories.
Other works in the show similarly deliver on the promise of its title to bring obscurity into view.
In Twardzik Ching Chor Leng's Real Estate (2014), an almost square plot of land on the front lawn of the museum, abutted by its signboard, is excavated, walled with glass and placed indoors for a privileged view of what lies under the arts institution; the soil is fine, largely homogenous and an oxygen-rich brown.
Yet the gesture of cutting 2.4m-deep into the museum ground, leaving cold-blooded edges and a hollow pit, points to man's dispassionate, disquieting treatment of land and raises questions as to who holds the right to disturb the earth and carve it up at will.
The medium may induce a gag reflex in most viewers but it is more than a cheap trick.
It spells the inescapable principle of survival of the fittest, which applies to both nature and man, and brings loss and renewal, the latter sometimes at the expense of another species.
The exhibition, sporting a studied air, also cultivates fertile pairings such as the one between The Bukit Brown Index (2014), a mixed-media installation by independent arts platform PostMuseum, and Ho Tzu Nyen's video, Earth (2009).
The Bukit Brown Index presents an archive of information concerning the cemetery where graves have been exhumed to make way for redevelopment plans.
The video, on the other hand, paints with deep variations of light and shadow in the style of Western masters to capture the sublime horror of still-warm bodies in suspended death, a few breaths away from becoming grey corpses in a post-apocalyptic world.
Seen together, the irony of the earth as a source of eternal repose for man and a victim of man's destruction resonates deeper.
Unearthed, thereupon, lays a sound bedrock for future shows at the museum, being on time, mostly on message, and largely right on the money of its mission.
Unearthed, thereupon, lays a sound bedrock for future shows at the museum, being on time, mostly on message, and largely right on the money of its mission.
Thursday, April 03, 2014
Supernatural Map of Bukit Brown
Post-Museum is showing the latest work, Bukit Brown Index.
We had a lot of fun making the work. I look forward to mapping the supernatural occurrences in Bukit Brown.
Of course, we couldn't put every thing we collected on the map. We are still collecting stories and so if you got a story about Bukit Brown, please share with us.
Transmission out, Tien.
Monday, April 08, 2013
The nomination of the Singapore Botanic Gardens for UNESCO World Heritage Site status should be just the start
http://www.todayonline.com/commentary/bukit-timah-forests-sit-flats-worthy-world-heritage-status-too - from this link.
The Singapore Heritage Society welcomes and supports the Government’s intention to nominate the Singapore Botanic Gardens for UNESCO World Heritage Site status. Indeed, the Society had mooted this back in 2009.
It is also pleased that the Government finally ratified the 1972 World Heritage Convention in June last year.
The 154 year-old Botanic Gardens is a worthy site. It was established in 1859 by the Agri-Horticultural Society on gambier plantation land formerly owned by Whampoa Hoo Ah Kay. Besides collection and experimentation of trees and plant species, additional land was committed for an ‘economic garden’ in 1879 to aid the establishment of plantation lands and plots in the region.
As stated in the justification provided to UNESCO, it stands as a testimony to the history of the economic, social and scientific development in Malaya. The Botanic Gardens saw pioneering work on rubber cultivation techniques carried out in the late 19th century which helped pave the way for its mass manufacturing in the early 20th century.
The Botanic Gardens also had an important hand in the distribution of rubber seeds to plantation owners in Malaya, persuading them switch to rubber from other crops. This move ensured Malaya’s early economic growth by giving a sizeable foothold in trading markets around the world.
Furthermore, while the Botanic Gardens is an undeniable symbol of the colonial empire’s power and reach, we should never forget the crucial risk-taking of local entrepreneurs who embarked on the rubber industry and the contribution of the numerous workers to the economic development of Malaya. Such is the interwoven nature of history.
THE NOMINATION PROCESS
With heritage education as part of its mandate, the Society would like to take this opportunity to explain the nomination process for UNESCO World Heritage status.
In order to achieve World Heritage status, a government must first prepare an inventory, known as the ‘tentative list’, of the country’s significant cultural and natural sites, or ‘properties’.
In the case of the Botanic Gardens, overseas consultants were hired by the Government in 2010 to conduct a feasibility study of possible sites that could be included in this tentative list. The Government has submitted the Botanic Gardens as the sole item on the tentative list, and is currently preparing a formal application for World Heritage status.
When the application is formally submitted, it will be evaluated by the International Council on Monuments and Sites or International Union for Conservation of Nature which assesses cultural and natural sites, respectively. After which, the evaluation is submitted to the UNESCO World Heritage Committee for its decision.
Though the Botanic Gardens meets many of the criteria or ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ to qualify as a World Heritage Site, it should be remembered that it is already gazetted as a ‘National Park’ under the Park and Trees Act. It is thus safe from destruction or encroachment, regardless of World Heritage status. Indeed, government protection is required before a site may be considered for World Heritage status.
VITAL TO CONSULT AND ENGAGE
Moving forward, the Society believes that two things are vital to the nomination process.
The first is consultation with local experts. This consultation process is crucial under the UNESCO World Heritage Convention and its Operational Guidelines.
These rules oblige governments to embark on consultation processes over the identification, nomination and protection of possible sites with a wide variety of stakeholders including the local community, academics and experts, and non-governmental organisations. This ensures that local knowledge and experience are taken into account throughout the application process, and not just as an afterthought.
It also encourages the government to be more communicative when it comes to its decision-making process. This will go a long way in enhancing long term interest in the site as the local community would have contributed to the process and feel that it has a stake in it.
The second is public engagement. What does achieving UNESCO World Heritage status mean for ordinary Singaporeans?
The Society strongly believes that the real value of winning World Heritage status lies not in global recognition or prestige. Rather, it lies in the opportunity to educate and raise awareness both locally and overseas, that contrary to popular belief, Singapore is a place rich with heritage.
More importantly, Singaporeans will be made to think deeply about what is meaningful us, why it is meaningful and, in the process, gain knowledge about a history that shapes our identity. The Society believes that all the accolades in the world will come to naught if citizens are not excited or engaged.
A BUDGET TO EDUCATE THE PUBLIC
To achieve this, the Society would like to make several suggestions.
With respect to the Botanic Gardens, create a budget dedicated to raising public awareness of the historical significance of the Botanic Gardens and the establishment of research grants for scholars, local and overseas, to excavate stories, information and documents in order to enhance our understanding of the Botanic Gardens.
Educate the public about the importance of conservation and the significance of Outstanding Universal Values, by commissioning local studies and public forums on the other prospective sites in Singapore that may be considered for tentative listing.
Indeed there are other sites that might have Outstanding Universal Value, but without legislative protection by the Government, they will be unable to receive the UNESCO stamp of approval.
Some possible sites include Bukit Brown, a beautiful swathe of tranquil greenery full of historically important graves that tell a tale of our ancestors’ journeys and connection to the region.
There are also the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and Central Catchment Nature Reserve, with tropical rainforests that are reportedly home to as many species of plants as the entire North America, and where a Belgium scientist discovered 150 new species of flies and where Alfred Wallace collected about 700 species of beetles in just two months about a century ago.
And then there are the Singapore Improvement Trust flats in Tiong Bahru, early examples of public housing development; and perhaps even our ubiquitous Housing and Development Board’s slab block flats that embodied modernist ideas that Le Corbusier tried to demonstrate in his Unitéd’Habitation.
In an era where the international community values sustainable development, the preservation of such sites in what is essentially one of the most densely populated countries in the world, and their successful listing as World Heritage, will be an ultimate tribute to the foresight and creative genius of our leaders and urban planners.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS:
Terence Chong, Yeo Kang Shua and Tan Wee Cheng are Executive Committee members of the Singapore Heritage Society.
Monday, August 06, 2012
Free,,, no thanks.
http://sosbukitbrown.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/natural-vs-curated-man-made-parks/
Above is an unpublished letter to ST forum, sent in sometime ago. Asking why Nparks choose to spend 1 billion for a garden while saving Bukit Brown which is free and a real 'garden'.Going by this logic, going green and eco seems like quite expensive business. Reminds me of the Brompton bikes issue, -where Nparks needed bicycles and went for going a more expensive solution? (see below for more info) I find it ridiculous. Why is that so?
Don't spend more money than we need to for the environment. Save money. Save Bukit Brown a 100%.
-------- --------------- -----------------
Share your comments below on this matter!
http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120724-361100.html
NParks officer suspended over $57,200 purchase of foldable bikes
SINGAPORE - The National Parks Board (NParks) officer involved in making the purchase of 26 foldable bicycles, totalling $57,200, has been suspended, according to a statement from the Ministry of National Development (MND) on Tuesday.
This comes after an internal audit conducted by the MND.
The amount spent of the purchase raised some eyebrows, with many Singaporeans questioning if the Brompton bikes, costing $2,200 each, were too expensive.
NParks had bought the foldable British-brand bikes for its officers to use on patrols.
Minister for National Development Khaw Boon Wan had earlier defended the purchase of the bicycles but called for an audit to be carried out last month to review the purchase to ascertain NParks' justification and to see if its procurement process could be improved.
The audit found that "the reasons for purchasing the foldable bikes to enhance work productivity of NParks field staff were valid", but "it had also uncovered some discrepancies which, although inconclusive by themselves, suggested the possibility of bias in the procurement."
As a result, the Ministry has decided that the discrepancies were significant enough to warrant further investigation.
The officer in charge of the deal has been suspended until further notice.
On July 4, Mr Khaw said in a blog post that he had asked NParks for the rationale for the purchase, and the statutor board cited staff productivity as the main reason for the purchase.
He defended the move, saying: "Providing staff with bikes was thought to be a simple and effective way to raise staff productivity as it enables the officer to cover more ground and do more inspections within the same time."
NParks officers in the Park Connector Division cover between 30 to 40km in their daily rounds.
Mr Khaw added that a foldable bicycle was chosen because such bicycles "would eliminate the need for an office van to transport the bikes and the staff to the areas of their daily rounds". The NParks staff would also be able to carry them onto buses and trains where necessary.
He also said that Brompton was picked because only one vendor responded to the tender with a bid price lower than the listed retail price of the same bicycle.
While a Brompton bike costs more than foldable bicycles with similar specifications, Mr Khaw said cyclists told him the bike was durable and would require less maintenance after heavy usage.
He concluded: "It looks like NParks has bought the right equipment. However, it also looks like NParks might have gotten a better deal if there was greater participation in this quotation."
Friday, June 01, 2012
Natural vs 'curated, man-made' Parks
This letter to the ST forum was not published. Here it is.
Dear Forum,
I am saddened to find out that the government's intention to build an 8-lane highway cutting through Bukit Brown.
This would destroy the scenic beauty, natural environment, habitat for endangered wildlife of Bukit Brown.
The recent spending of the 76 million dollars re-development of Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park and the 1 billion dollars for Garden by the Bay showed the government's serious commitment to a 'green' Singapore.
However, the efforts to protect the natural green forest and biodiversity of Bukit Brown do not reflect the same kind of 'green' Singapore aspirations.
I would like to highlight that Bukit Brown is currently used for recreation (jogging, walking dogs, cycling), unique tours led by civil society, environmental protection, appreciation and more. Bukit Brown is a park and a common space for people from all walks of life. In that way, Bukit Brown is an organic ground-up development and in that way, it is priceless and irreplaceable.
Hence, I wonder why do we spend billions of dollars for a man-made landscaped park where we shipped trees from all parts of the world adding to the carbon footprint of the world and readily trade-off the free, natural and meaningful Bukit Brown for the short-term gains like the 8-lane highway. Saving Bukit Brown is more environmental friendly and sustainable in the long term.
As Minister of National Development (MND) Khaw Boon Wan have pointed out in his statement, “Singaporeans have to take ownership of public spaces”. Therefore, I ask the government and Singaporeans to come together to be committed and creative in planning our future. Natural resources like Bukit Brown forest and biodiversity is scarce. Collectively, we can find a solution to save Bukit Brown and have a really 'green and sustainable' Singapore.
Yours
Woon Tien Wei
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Encouragement for Saving Bukit Brown
Thank you Bukit Brownies!
Watch the latest video contribution from another concerned citizen. Keep the images, messages, articles and videos coming!
Send to sosbukitbrown@gmail.com
Send to sosbukitbrown@gmail.com
Here is his message for the video:
Some people ask where we get the motivation to keep pushing for Bukit Brown's protection. Let's just say we get it from the very top. We are in agreement with what is being said recently! So don't wait liao. Stand up and be counted. Sign the open letter to support the protection of Bukit Brown at sosbukitbrown.wordpress.com or go to our Facebook page. These places got more information on Bukit Brown also.
Some people ask where we get the motivation to keep pushing for Bukit Brown's protection. Let's just say we get it from the very top. We are in agreement with what is being said recently! So don't wait liao. Stand up and be counted. Sign the open letter to support the protection of Bukit Brown at sosbukitbrown.wordpress.com or go to our Facebook page. These places got more information on Bukit Brown also.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Protecting our Commons
Posted by theonlinecitizen on November 16, 2011
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/11/protecting-our-commons/
~by: William S.W. Lim and Faith Wong~
http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/11/protecting-our-commons/
~by: William S.W. Lim and Faith Wong~
 |
| Bukit Brown's sparrow. Photo by Suki Singh |
The impassioned public response to the LTA’s announcement that a road will be built through Bukit Brown cemetery can be viewed through the prism of the larger issue of Singapore’s dwindling pockets of active public space – the accessible, shared spaces for citizens traditionally known as the Commons. (This does not refer to the pseudo public realms of shopping malls, theme parks and golf greens, which are highly regulated and monitored.)
Voices of dissent to recent development plans have been increasing in volume. This is partly due to the fact that social media has provided an effective platform for mobilising public sentiment and partly due to growing demand among Singaporeans for open engagement and participation in policy-making. Examples are the campaigns to save the Bukit Brown Cemetery, the Rail Corridor, the Old School at Mount Sophia and numerous other instances involving national issues of land scarcity and urban transport.
Case 1: Bukit Brown Cemetery (BBC)
There is no need to further espouse the historical value of the cemetery to the nation’s culture and identity and its importance for collective memories. These issues have been highlighted by the Heritage Society and Nature Society, as well as in myriad letters from the public. One only wonders whether this is enough to rouse the nation from its familiar apathy towards the government’s pro-developmental strategies that often throw the nation’s heritage under the bus.
The eventual development of the cemetery land may have been publicised in the 1991 Concept Plan but one should recognise that concept plans only serve as a guide. If present conditions make some developments unsuitable, it makes no sense to carry them through. Plans regarding the physical environment should not be cast in stone but should be a flexible incomplete urban framework that is able to adapt to unforeseen changes and accept new conceptual ideas in the contingent urban environment. Also, in the race to beat the 2013 deadline, the frenzy of calling for volunteers to document the graves has conveniently blanketed the fact that this decision was thrust upon us. Open active public discourse would facilitate a transparent participatory process that will build trust in governance.
The recent proposal to digitise the cemetery involves a dystopian concept where real urban experiences are simulated in hyper-reality. This future where history and urban space is a matter of a click of the mouse is a horrific thought. We really are in trouble if this becomes the preferred solution to our urban contestations. We support the letter to Today by Mr Liew Kai Khiun, ‘Golf courses, not history, should make way’. A golf course is about 80-100 hectares, easily the size of a BBC (86 hectares) or Singapore Botanic Gardens (74 hectares). It is a spatial injustice when so many golf courses take up a large amount of land while servicing only the privileged few.
Case 2: Vibrant Rail Corridor
In contrast, the government’s ready engagement of the public regarding the fate of the KTM railway land should be applauded. The various design schemes and ideas proffered in the consultative process provide a clear directive towards any potential development, that is, to keep the 26km tract as a public green to be defended from acquisition for commercial use. The Rail Corridor is an unprecedented historical opportunity to provide wonderful experiences to all income and age groups, whether as a leisure and recreation site or a venue for art and cultural activities. A vibrant people-oriented corridor will generate a strong and unique image of our physical identity. It can become an iconic place with a long and complex history that all Singaporeans can be proud of.
The Myths of Land Scarcity and Urban Transport
‘Land scarcity’ and ‘transport needs’ are often used as the rationale for development. We require more imaginative solutions to these needs, for the day will arrive when we will have finally run out of land. We need to stabilise our population between 5 and 5.5 million, minimise our carbon footprint and work towards achieving environmentally sustainable lifestyles. It is critical that we change this singular mindset of “destroy-and-rebuild” that the nation has perfected into a treacherous art form.
How many roads do we need to achieve maximum flow of vehicular traffic? Infinite! New and/or bigger roads would only induce demand for more roads, a common illusion with automobile-oriented cities. In an age concerned with the carbon footprint, this car obsession is a great obstacle to achieving a sustainable city. Public transport remains the most effective, affordable and reliable way to move people for long distances. Cycling and walking are important complementary alternatives that are seriously under-explored here. There must be a “reset” in urban design towards a people-oriented integrated transportation network capable of meeting the needs of the majority of citizens.
The Save Old School (SOS) campaign began as an effort to save an alma mater but really concerns the land use and development of the Mount Sophia site, an area that is in the process of being transformed into a high-end residential district. This is yet another contestation that foreshadows the insidious losing of our Commons. It is not about deciding which buildings are more deserving of conservation but whether any building should be torn down for redevelopment at all, versus say refurbishment and retrofitting. For BBC, it is not how the graves should be researched or archived, but whether the site should be preserved and improved as a memorable public space. These urban contestations form part of the fight to protect the Commons. One should not mistake these efforts as reserved only for sentimental conservation buffs and idealistic dreamers; they are matters that concern us all.
–
WILLIAM S.W. LIM is an independent writer and urban theorist.
FAITH WONG majors in architecture, and is currently Lim’s researcher.
WILLIAM S.W. LIM is an independent writer and urban theorist.
FAITH WONG majors in architecture, and is currently Lim’s researcher.
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