Include Indoor Stadium in Sports Hub's future plans: Heritage experts

They call for facility to be refurbished instead of demolished

- Ng Keng Gene and Deepanraj Ganesan

Heritage experts and members of the architectural community are calling on the authorities to incorporate the Singapore Indoor Stadium (SIS) into their plans for the Kallang Alive precinct, as the Government works out options for a new indoor arena to be built in the area.

Minister for Culture, Community and Youth Edwin Tong announced on March 7 that a new indoor arena that is "best in class globally" will be built adjacent to the SIS, citing the competition from newer, modern indoor arenas in the region.

He said the SIS will continue to operate until the new arena is up and running. The authorities will study future plans for the SIS and provide more details when ready, he added.

The announcement has caused concern among local architecture and heritage advocates, who worry that the iconic stadium's days are numbered.

Architectural historian Chang Jiat-Hwee, a member of non-profit heritage group Docomomo Singapore's executive committee, said the SIS, which opened in end-1989, is "undoubtedly an integral part of" Singapore's modernist heritage.

He urged the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) which oversees the National Heritage Board - to engage experts to assess if the requirements it has for the new arena can be met through a retrofit of the existing stadium.

Dr Chang said: "As this concerns the fate of an important modernist structure, the assessment should be shared publicly." If a refurbished SIS cannot meet the standards of a modern indoor arena, he added, then MCCY should conduct a heritage impact assessment to understand how the new development might affect the existing stadium, and make its findings public.

"It would be very ironic if the very ministry tasked to take care of the nation's heritage destroys the very heritage it has stewardship of, whether deliberately or inadvertently," said Dr Chang.