Today: An Abode for the Soul

Buildings are more than just bricks and mortar

My tai tai life is so busy, but every time I drop by the Chinese Swimming Club for a swim, I still pause to gaze at the Butterfly House nearby. What started off as an admiring glance at the unique architecture has now turned into a homage tinged with mourning.

If nothing is done, this butterfly will soon have its wings clipped. Thanks to the controversy surrounding it, I now know about its pedigree.

Designed by Regent Alfred John Bidwell - the architect behind the Raffles Hotel, Goodwood Park Hotel and Victoria Memorial Hall - this is the only residential property in Singapore with curved wings.

Pretty impressive. But for me, at least, that pales in comparison to how the Butterfly House makes me feel. Its curves and impressive entrance take me back to a gentler age - a time when Singapore had a seaside community, when her people valued gracious living and pretty abodes over making money and en bloc sales.

Conservation campaigners have been told they are just being sentimental, and that it makes financial sense to demolish the place. But what these critics do not realise is a good building is more than just a parcel of land topped by a pile of bricks. It is art, designed to evoke emotions.

Good architecture speaks to the heart, not just the mind.

The Butterfly House may just be a simple bungalow, but from the uproar it has caused, it looks like some of us love it in the same way Parisians love the Eiffel Tower or New Yorkers the Empire State Building.

If anything, we are probably more passionate because there are so few of such heritage buildings left in Singapore. Go down any street corner in Paris or Rome and you will probably stumble upon more than a few charming places. But here, all we have to boast about are some shophouses and pre-war flats. Even buildings of obvious historical significance such as Alexandra Hospital are not considered heritage monuments, thus facing the threat of the wrecking ball.

Seafront bungalows have made way for walk-up apartments, which themselves have become victims of en-bloc sales. Hardly any building today is more than 20 years old - which is hardly long enough for us to build any emotional attachment to it.

It does not help that the attitude here towards conservation is quite lackadaisical. Owners do not like their buildings to be declared a heritage site because they think it would lower its value. They do not like that they cannot renovate the buildings their way, coupled with the
fact they cannot make a packet from condominium developers hungry for land.

Compare that to the practice in England, where owners apply for conservation status because they know they will be able to sell it off at a premium later to heritage lovers.

The other argument against conservation is Singapore is so small that every bit of land is precious. To which I say: Is that piece of land so valuable it's worth losing your soul over?

You never see tourists favouring a trip to admire HDB flats over St Andrew's Cathedral. Wedding shoots, for instance, are hardly done in Shenton Way, but instead at places such as Raffles Hotel, The Fullerton, the old Supreme Court and Chijmes. What is common is they are all situated on prime land, sensitively restored and testaments to the fact "where there's a will, there's a way".

The developers of the Butterfly House say they can only save the back of the building because the wings take up too much space. All it takes is a bit of imagination and smart architects who can look beyond the obvious.

Do not tell me that in our 42 years of independence and education, we have not been able to produce a local Bidwell?

I once asked the chief executive officer of a large property developer why her firm spent money restoring old bungalows in its condo developments, especially since those buildings did not have conservation status. She answered simply: "They add value to the property."

A wise move, indeed. See how the Grand Duchess sold out during the soft launch, aided no doubt by the two Straits Chinese bungalows on the property. The developers of the Butterfly House would do well to take note.

If they don't, they can count on me not buying a condominium unit in that new development. I cannot bear the thought of looking out of the window every day to see my poor amputated friend lying there with both its limbs chopped off.

Tabitha Wang will be appealing to the Ministry of National Development to save the Butterfly House before the July 7 deadline. Anyone wants to join her?