from The Business Times
Balancing Singapore's diverse urban planning needs
go to article (PDF version)

An overview on the underlying premise of urban development policy in Singapore. Midway in the article in discussing urban conservation, it is interesting to read that:

"We take a more pragmatic approach. Conservation isn't necessarily just about keeping the old buildings and old trades. I think conservation is recognising the built heritage that you have. But it's also about recognising that the world changes and you need to adapt, you need to allow adaptive re-use of these buildings for good economic uses and good social uses. Things cannot freeze in time,"

Mitigating the needs of urban expansion and renewal on the one hand, and that of preservation of the urban fabric on the other, would not normally be considered an easy task, and rightly so. However, it should also be pointed out that conflating two such divergent and opposing functions under the same authority would appear to set the stage (unintentionally, perhaps) for a potential conflict of interests.