Planning for the future: an evolving conservation space in Singapore
Singapore’s conservation landscape is at an interesting point of evolution.
As development pressures, sustainability priorities and changing social values shape the city, new approaches are required to guide how cultural heritage is protected, managed and understood.
Director of Purcell Asia Pacific Limited, Steve Philips, and Associate Partner of Purcell Australia, Anita Krivickas recently supported the National University of Singapore (NUS) ArCLab Executive programme on integrated approaches to heritage management. Held between the 7-9 January 2026, the programme was created to raise awareness and strengthen baseline understanding of conservation, encouraging participants to reflect on existing tools and consider how practice could evolve in response to International best practice in conservation management.
It brought together practitioners and public sector officers to explore emerging challenges and opportunities within contemporary conservation practice, particularly the practical application of Conservation Management Plans (CMPs) and Heritage Impact Assessments (HIAs) to strengthen professional capacity for informed, transparent, and defensible heritage decision-making in Singapore. For Purcell, this collaboration reflects a longstanding, shared commitment with NUS to advancing conservation outcomes through engagement and knowledge sharing.
With Conservation Management Plans not currently being used as a formalised tool within Singapore’s conservation framework, this represents a significant opportunity. This absence offers scope to shape a locally responsive approach and one that aligns with Singapore’s policy environment, sustainability ambitions and development context.
CMPs play an important role in managing change in a way that is both sensitive and innovative. When embedded early, they can guide estate management, inform development proposals and support balanced decision-making, ensuring heritage significance is understood and protected while accommodating growth and adaptation. Globally, CMPs continue to evolve, increasingly responding to environmental policy, climate resilience, tourism pressures and interpretation strategies.
For CMPs to be effective locally, further discussion is needed around policy alignment, governance and stakeholder engagement. This may include pilot studies, public consultation and closer integration with existing planning tools such as Heritage Impact Assessments and Environmental Impact Assessments. Collaboration between practice, academia and authorities will be essential in shaping this next phase.
Having authored CMPs worldwide, Purcell has witnessed how these documents can inform and support the management and care of heritage assets within broader programs of change in response to new or evolving societal needs. Projects such as Tai Kwun in Hong Kong, now supported by its third iteration of a CMP, demonstrates the role these frameworks can play in providing long-term stewardship beyond revitalisation.
We are honoured to support initiatives that contribute to the evolution of conservation practice in Singapore and are excited by the potential conservation management planning opportunities ahead.
