Blog Prompt, News Clip #3

Q. Urban development is more important than architectural conservation in a small country. Discuss.

Urban development in a small country like Singapore is essential for our ever growing population, however, I think we should not neglect our old buildings and old heritages. Now, in the modern Singapore, we rarely see pasar-malams or night markets that was so frequently seen years back. In modern Singapore, there are lots of high rise buildings and many different architectural designs. To you, these designs may be a symbol of Singapore moving forward, but as I have heard in a geography lecture, these designs are like a replica for other parts of the worl, like the IR resot that is going to be built, there is already a similar one in the Middle East. Another example is the bridge that we are building accross the Singapore river, it seem s like a mini replica to a bridge in Melborne. Therefor, I think that architectural conservation is more important than Urban development.

Architectural conservation conserves the buildings of our past which are unique and cannot be found anywhere else, wheras in urban development, architects build buildings with the same design all across the world. Therefore, I think that preserving our heritage is much more important than urban develpoment, with our heritage, people from other countries will also stream to Singapore to experiance our culture and learn about the history of Singapore through all the preserved buildings.