SINGAPORE – From playing with chickens and watching her mother sell bread at the void deck to gathering with neighbours to watch television together, Block 1 in Siglap holds many memories for Madam Dawn Tam.
When the Government reversed its decision to tear down the low-rise block as part of a Selective En bloc Redevelopment Scheme project, she could not hold back her tears.
“I was just so happy to hear that it was going to be conserved. It holds all my childhood memories,” she said.
Madam Tam’s family was one of many that called Block 1 home for decades. It is one of four low-rise HDB blocks in East Coast Road built in 1963 to house displaced families after a major fire in 1962 destroyed more than 50 houses in Kampong Siglap.
On April 11, the 63-year-old joined 30 other Siglap residents at an engagement session held by the People’s Association (PA) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) at Siglap South Community Centre to envision what the old HDB block could be in the future.
The authorities had announced in 2024 that Block 1 would be retained and retrofitted into a fresh space for residents to use. The other three blocks have progressively been torn down for development.
At the first of a string of resident engagements on April 11, Madam Tam shared her idea of turning a few of the units in the block into museum spaces to showcase personal stories and items, to paint a vivid picture of the community and the lives they lived in the past.
“This is something that is so close to all of our hearts, so to have records of our stories and voices is something very beautiful that we must pass on to the next generation,” she said.
