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 flat as part of a Selected En bloc Redevelopment Scheme (Sers) 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 the many that called Block 1 home for decades. It is one of the four low-rise HDB blocks at 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 in an engagement session held by People’s Association (PA) and the 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 the next generation,” she said.

“We can still keep the Kampong Siglap spirit going.”

SLA ...