Shophouses, skylines, and sixty years of imagination — why built spaces matter most at SG60

Sixty years after independence, Singapore stands as a city that has never stopped building. Our story is not one of inheritance but of invention, brick by brick, ambition by ambition. When the odds said we could not, we drew lines on the map and turned them into skylines.

When land was scarce, we stacked communities into the air. When history threatened to be erased, we conserved, adapted, and reimagined. The built environment has always been more than concrete and glass — it is where memory, identity, and possibility meet.

This SG60 issue celebrates Built Spaces because they hold the most visible evidence of our journey. They remind us that Singapore’s greatness has never been measured by size, but by the ability to shape something enduring out of limitation.

Today, the places Singaporeans cherish most are not always the grand icons on postcards. They are the ones that carry the weight of memory. Void decks where childhood friendships took root, hawker centres where generations return to the same bowls of noodles, playgrounds tiled with mosaics that live on in photographs and recollections.

These are spaces that continue to matter because they belong to everyone.

CEO of DP Architects, Seah Chee Huang, who is also our cover profile for this month’s issue, reminds us that HDB estates “remain living archives, connecting various generations of Singaporeans”. From Tiong Bahru’s pre-war flats to Toa Payoh’s satellite town, each estate holds a chapter of our collective history.

These are not static monuments but evolving neighbourhoods that reveal what it means to live together, and to keep reinterpreting what home looks like.

Shophouses tell a similar story. Once overlooked, they now stand as vibrant reminders of how renewal can honour the past while shaping the future. As placemaker Stella Gwee says, the shophouse is “more than just a building; it is a mindset, a living lab”.

Their narrow corridors and mixed uses capture the spirit of human scale, improvisation, and community. To walk through Joo Chiat or Chinatown today is to see history and modernity sharing the same five-foot way.

Icons of ambition

Alongside these everyday places are the landmarks that reveal Singapore’s audacity. Marina Bay Sands, Jewel Changi, the Sports Hub — they symbolise our refusal to settle for small dreams. What once felt improbable became possible through design, discipline, and vision.

These icons matter because they reflect our national character: bold, forward-looking, and unafraid to imagine beyond our limits. As Seah describes it, Singapore has achieved what Jim Collins calls “big, hairy, audacious goals”, realising dreams “with intent, passion, and purpose”. They remind the world, and ourselves, that even a little red dot can leave a dazzling mark.

Yet spectacle is only half the story. Ask most Singaporeans where they feel most at home, and they will mention a hawker stall, a park, or the coastline of East Coast, where families gather. Both ambition and intimacy matter. One inspires us to reach higher; the other roots us in belonging. Together, they form the rhythm of our national life.

Still, what excites us about focusing on Built Spaces for SG60 is not only what has been built, but how design itself is evolving. No longer is architecture only about form and function. Increasingly, it is about how spaces inspire connection, imagination, and possibility.

As Su Anne Mi, CEO of The Great Room, observes, there is “a rising appetite for spaces that do more than just serve — they inspire”. Her work in transforming heritage buildings into workspaces shows how adaptive reuse can extend a story rather than overwrite it.

A former shophouse that once dried medicinal herbs on its rooftop now hums with conversations in a co-working bar — a tribute to the past, alive in the present.

This ethos — to conserve, adapt, and reimagine — will shape the next chapter of Singapore’s journey. It is a reminder that built spaces are not frozen in time. They breathe only when people step in, occupy, and make them their own.

Inheritance for the next generation

As Singapore turns 60, the question is not simply what we have built, but what we will pass on. What kind of spaces will the next generation inherit?

For Gwee, the hope is that young Singaporeans “inherit not just a beautiful, healthy, and functional city, but a city that they feel empowered to shape and call their own”. This is a profound vision: a reminder that cities are never complete. They are made and remade, not by architects or planners alone, but by everyone who gathers, eats, celebrates, and dreams within them.

That is the inheritance worth fighting for — not only polished spectacles, but also the textures of everyday life. Not only efficiency, but imagination. Not only is history preserved in facades, but it is also kept alive through its continued use.

Singapore’s built spaces are stories told in concrete, steel, and tile. They are proof of a nation that dared to design its own survival and, in doing so, built a future that keeps unfolding.

As we celebrate SG60, let us be reminded that buildings are never the end of the story. They are invitations — to belong, to gather, to imagine. They call on us to dream bigger, live slower, and create together. They remind us that the work of building is not done when scaffolding is removed, but when communities breathe life into every corner.

Singapore has always been more than the sum of its structures. It has been the courage to dream without limit, and the tenacity to realise those dreams against the odds. At 60, we celebrate not only what we have built, but the imagination to keep building.

Because in the end, our greatest monument is not a skyline. It is a living city, still being written, by all of us, together.