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Attended a course and was just thinking abt the issue of conserving Singapore's built heritage.

I believe many Singaporeans have a shared memory of wet markets and hawker centres as this are places that people in Singapore frequent daily.

Should the architecture of the wet markets and hawker centres be conserved?

Apart from Lau Pak Sat at Raffles Place, many of the wet markets and hawker centres seems to be utilitarian in nature. That may seem to suggest that the architecture may not be worthwhile for conservation.

However, I have another viewpoint which I'm pondering over.

When many of the Singaporeans become familiar with and accustomed to these 'utilitarian' buildings, does it make these building an iconic representation of what Singaporean would subconsciously link to wet market and hawker centres? If so, these buildings would form part of Singapore's common heritage shared by many generations. Therefore, it might be worthwhile to conserve such heritage.

I had another thought. What is the true essence of the wet markets and hawker centres that people associate with? Is it the structure? Or is it the people, the relationship between the residents and the stall holders, the culture of bargaining in the market or the familiarity of identifying with the way the daily sales goes on in the market?

This I am not sure. What do you think?