What to Keep?: Thoughts About Tearing Down a Housing Estate in Singapore

567 households, 187 shops and stalls. Four iconic housing blocks. In 2011, Rochor Centre was given its demolition sentence. In the days of packing up that followed, residents confronted the question of what to keep, what to throw out, where to go... In this probing series of photographs, we come face to face with a microcosm of Singapore's drive for redevelopment. How do we preserve of heritage, lifestyle, our communities? The book also documents the responses of viewers from all walks of life. Their opinions, recollections and musings triggered by the photos offer us a fascinating, multifaceted look at history, urban upheaval, and the effects on people's lives.

Photographs by Lau Eng Seng, winner of the second prize at the International Photography Awards 2013. Eng Seng graduated with a Diploma in Fine Art from NAFA and has been exhibited actively overseas and in Singapore, including at ＂Singapore Eye: Contemporary Singapore Art＂ 2015. Keynote essay by Sonny Liew, creator of the internationally acclaimed graphic nover, The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, which won the Singapore Literature Prize and Book of the Year Award in 2016.