Description
Note: This book will be launched on 22 November – your order will be sent out in the week of 24 November.
In the heart of Singapore, just off Orchard Road, the House of Tan Yeok Nee stands as the last surviving traditional Teochew courtyard mansion in the city-state. In a landscape transformed by rapid redevelopment, this rare architectural relic offers a tangible link to the values, aspirations, and craftsmanship of Singapore’s early Chinese communities.
Built in the late nineteenth century by Tan Yeok Nee, a wealthy Teochew merchant with close ties to the Johor royal court, the house has served many roles: private residence, girls’ home, religious institution, and restored heritage landmark. Despite these transitions, its physical fabric has retained a remarkable degree of authenticity. This book traces the house’s evolution through detailed analysis of its architectural form, restoration history, and social context, arguing for the importance of material culture and architectural history as rich sources of historical insight.
By closely reading the building’s structure, ornamentation, and adaptations over time, the book shows how it serves not only as heritage but as an architectural palimpsest. In doing so, it offers an alternative lens on Singapore’s past, rooted not just in archives, but in the meanings embedded in built space.
Blending narrative clarity with academic rigour, this book will appeal to general readers, heritage professionals, and scholars interested in architecture, conservation, and Southeast Asian history. The House of Tan Yeok Nee is more than a national monument, it is a vessel of memory, a witness to change, and a vital part of Singapore’s cultural legacy.
Published by ICOMOS Singapore
About the Author
Yeo Kang Shua is Associate Professor and Hokkien Foundation Professor in Architectural Conservation at the Singapore University of Technology and Design. He specialises in Singapore and Southeast Asia’s architectural history and conservation, with special interest in the built heritage of Chinese diaspora. His previous books, 《粵海清廟：建築與歷史的對話》 (ASD Press, 2020) and Divine Custody: A History of Singapore’s Oldest Teochew Temple (NUS Press, 2021), explore Teochew religious architecture in Singapore. This book on the House of Tan Yeok Nee focuses on the residential tradition, offering a complementary perspective on Teochew architectural expression in the city-state.
楊茳善 [Yeo, Kang Shua]. 《粵海清廟：建築與歷史的對話》[Wak Hai Cheng Bio: A Dialogue between Architecture and History], Singapore: Architecture and Sustainable Design, Singapore University of Technology and Design, 2020. ISBN: 978-981-143-218-7.
Yeo, Kang Shua. Divine Custody: A History of Singapore’s Oldest Teochew Temple, Singapore: NUS Press, 2021. ISBN: 978-981-325-144-1.
Praise for Honourable Mansion
Yeo delivers an exceptional history of the House of Tan Yeok Nee with exemplary rigour and clarity. He traces the mansion from private residence to public use, and to its recent restoration. Along the way he illuminates the intricacies of traditional Chinese construction, and explains how evidence, craft, and judgement inform conservation best practices. The result is more than a case study: it sets a benchmark for architectural conservation in Singapore and the region, and offers readers, from students to specialists, a rare blend of scholarly insight and engaging narrative.
— William Chapman, heritage conservation academic; Director of the Historic Preservation Programme, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa
As Yeo reflects on the granite inscription 資政第 (Zīzhèngdì), he offers a nuanced interpretation that the House of Tan Yeok Nee is ‘a declaration of identity, ambition, and belonging’. His deep knowledge of Chinese architectural heritage, coupled with years of restoration practice, allows him to craft with quiet authority a masterful work of authorship and scholarship, informed by conservation praxis. Page by page, discoveries unfold—architectural and human alike. Few works match its blend of technical depth, literary clarity, and visual storytelling. A landmark contribution that sets a new benchmark for architectural historiography in Singapore and the wider Asia–Pacific region.
— Laurence Loh, conservation architect; owner of the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion (The Blue Mansion), George Town, Malaysia
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