In November 2019, The NUS Baba House was featured in a video supplement as part of the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore’s (URA) newly-launched exhibition 30 Years of Conservation, which celebrates the milestones since their conservation programme began in 1989.

The video, titled The NUS Baba House: A Precious Jewel, features interviews with honorary curator of the house, Mr. Peter Lee, and senior lecturer at the NUS Department of Architecture, Dr Nikhil Joshi. Both individuals have been extensively involved in various parts of the conservation process. Peter managed the curatorial aspects during restoration and currently continues to do so in a consultative capacity, while Dr. Nikhil has been researching traditional building materials used in the house since 2016. The video gathers their thoughts about conservation within the NUS Baba House, and the importance of retaining rare architectural and cultural features in a wider context.

The focus on conservation practices helps situate the NUS Baba House within contemporary urban issues, rather than as a silo of the past. Built in the 1890s, the NUS Baba House at 157 Neil Road was originally the ancestral home of a Peranakan family – the Wees, who descended from shipping magnate Wee Bin. The house was acquired by NUS in 2006 with funds donated by Ms. Agnes Tan in memory of her late father and Malaysian community leader Tun Tan Cheng Lock. Now a heritage home curated to the year 1928, the NUS Baba House displays objects typical of a Peranakan home of the period, contextualising Peranakan Chinese material culture, aesthetics, social history, and architecture within a domestic setting.

What sets NUS Baba House apart from the ordinary heritage house, however, is that apart from the artefacts contained within the house, it is also the processes within it, rather than just the final product, which provide valuable learning material to students and the wider public.

Peter Lee emphasises the need for authenticity in curation and construction in the URA feature. “The biggest challenge for the project was to maintain a level of authenticity for the visitor experience as well as the building. To try and keep it as real as possible and not fictionalise our story.” As such, a key source of information was a set of photos of the house from the 1960s taken by Lee Kip Lin, which gave an idea of how the spaces were used and furnished by the family in the past.

Additionally, in the past year, the NUS Baba House has been focusing more than ever on contemporary issues as part of its programming. It hosted a lecture on the traditional building material of lime plaster, conducted by Dr. Nikhil Joshi; it was a stop on Architours – a programme organised by NUS Architecture Society, where participants were brought to sites that exemplified the meaning of artisanal craftsmanship; and it also became a classroom for different educational groups to learn not just about Peranakan culture, but to investigate themes of cultural hybridity, the dynamism of transnational relations such as the concept of Chineseness, as well as concepts behind curation, conservation, and architectural restoration.

Even its closure for two weeks for maintenance works this past December afforded the NUS Baba House the opportunity to introduce guests and students to the important and often delicate work behind restoring and maintaining a heritage house.

Outside of being a model of Peranakan life in the 1920s, therefore, this house has cemented its title as a living research project. New information regarding building materials and restoration techniques are being discovered at each turn, allowing this space to be a dynamic one that revisits 20th century issues and contextualises them within the contemporary sphere.

The reopening of the NUS Baba House to the public enables it to continue encouraging students and the public to critically engage with culture, heritage, and conservation.

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English guided tours are offered once per day from Tuesdays to Fridays at 10am, while self-guided visits are available at four timeslots on Saturdays.