SW News: The Singapore government has decided to conserve and revamp a group of Catholic buildings for their historical, architectural, and social significance. The Urban Redevelopment Authority said that six buildings and an entrance archway at St. Theresa’s Home will be conserved.
St. Theresa’s Home is a Catholic nursing home established in the 1930s by the Little Sisters of the Poor congregation. The building was designed and built by renowned Singaporean architect Ho Kwong Yew. The six buildings include a chapel, dormitory blocks, and administrative complexes.
According to Catholic Welfare Services, the home will be shifted to another site by 2026. The institution takes care of the elderly and sick people and provides medical, spiritual, and pastoral care.
The Archdiocese of Singapore has agreed to the conversion of the buildings. It also has plans for an “adaptive reuse of the buildings that have been proposed for conservation as part of its redevelopment plans for the site.”
The revamping of the buildings is scheduled to start next year and is expected to be over by 2025. Once the buildings are ready, the archdiocese will use them as church archives, offices, and a home for retired priests.
The Little Sisters of the Poor is an international congregation that was founded in 1839 in France by St Jeanne Jugan. The congregation is well known for looking after the poor, old, and destitute across the world. On July 1, 2003, The Little Sisters of the Poor left Singapore and handed over the buildings to the Catholic Welfare Services, a social wing of the Singapore Archdiocese.