Monuments and memoriesIH ACE

3 problems preserving buildings in Singapore

•Lack of space•Economic growth (closely linked to 1) •Not enough funding

Lack of space

•A small country, with a total land area of about 700 km2, Singapore needs every piece of land it has (for housing ,Economic activities etc.)•Old buildings makes way to new ones

Economic growth( closely linked to lack of space

•As Singapore is a small country, her challenges have always been to optimise our limited land to meet our needs and to safeguard land for future development.

Inadequate Funding

•In order to restore and maintain the building a lot of money is needed. This cost can reach millions. Just relying on the government funds will not be enough and realistic. The board in charge of it could advertise to private company for donations for the preservation of our heritage

So why exactly should we preserve the monuments??

Firstly, many of the monuments have historical values and a natural heritage.

Take the recent Bukit Brown Cemetery as an example. It is one of the oldest cemetery in Singapore with a lot of heritage. Many people are already attached to this cemetery and are stepping up to preserve the natural heritage.

Secondly,Most monuments are all a part of

our nations history and it is worth keeping as they exhibit the history of Singapore.

The house of Tan Yeok Nee shows the rich history behind the chinese who came to Singapore to start his business. This places rich in historic value will definitely play a vital part in educating the younger generation of Singaporeans.

However, what if all our buildings of historical value have been destroyed so as to make space for country development...

What are we going to use to educate the new generation on our history? It is the same theory when a type of animal becomes extinct and we do not get to see it again. Surely we do not want our heritage to end just like that. So lets work hand in hand to preserve our nation's rich history.

FUN FACTDid you know?

Our school, Hwa Chong Institutions Clock Tower is regarded as one of the national monuments??

It was gazetted on 19 march 1999.

Criteria for choosing national monuments

Amount of space needed

Uniqueness Heritage national identity

4 points Not much space

one of its kind

Rich reminds people of Singapore

3 points Average amount of space

quite rare Above average

reminds people about South east asia

2 points A considerably large amount of space

quite common

Below average

reminds people vaguely of Singapore

1 point Takes up a large amount of space.

very common

Poor just some old collapsing building

Criteria for choosing national monuments to make

We use this table to judge how worthy the monument is.• We chose the criteria space as we

are all aware that Singapore is a small country and needs space for development, thus we should try to find monuments of smaller size.

• We chose uniqueness as people are usually attracted to items that are special.

• We chose heritage for the obvious reason that it shows how much the monument is worth in terms of the rich history.

• Lastly, we chose nationital identity as it shows how significant is to Singapore.

We decided to do a judging on one of the monuments we chose, Siong Lim temple.We feel that it is a monument worthy to keep. 1.It is only 20000 square meter. 4points for size 2.The temple has a seven storey pagoda which is a replica of the 800 year old Shanfeng temple pagoda in Fujian.4 points for uniqueness.

3. It has quite a rich heritage and history. 3 points for heritage.4. When people hear the name of it, they will roughly know its from Singapore. 4 points for national identity.

It will get an honourable 12 out of 14!

Thank You for your kind attentionDone by Koh Wei Liang 1p3(10)

See Toh Ee Kin 1p3(23)