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Sustaining the local color of a global city

Nature Cities volume 2, pages 400–412 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

Color plays a significant role in shaping the urban environment as well as serving as a vivid expression of the culture of its people. Sustaining the local color through urban heritage conservation has proven to be an effective means. Yet, these strategies often rest on the assumption that each heritage site has its color palette remaining unchanged over time. As cities become more cosmopolitan, with increasingly diverse and migrating populations, we question how this shift might influence the local color and its conservation strategies. In this study, we examined the chromatic reconstruction of 3,103 heritage buildings in Singapore using a combination of computational machine learning techniques and non-computational archival and fieldwork methods. Our analysis of text and image data spanning over 40 years before and after heritage conservation in Singapore reveals that for those heritage sites that are still inhabited, local color is not always constant but ongoing and imbued with diverse cultural meanings over time. Historicization, ethnicization and commercialization serve as the key trends in expressing meaning throughout conservation, manifesting in five dimensions, namely, dominant colors, color complexity, color harmony, average saturation and average value. The dynamic change in local color bears significant implications for heritage conservation. We argue that color should be seen as an indispensable part of the sociocultural ecology, rich in meaning and continuously evolving, rather than merely an objective attribute of the material artifact to be preserved in isolation.

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Fig. 1: Research framework.
Fig. 2: Colors of the shophouse streetscape before and after conservation.
Fig. 3: Colors of three shophouse styles.
Fig. 4: Colors of three districts.
Fig. 5: Colors of streets in three shophouse districts.
Fig. 6: Diagrammatic façade matrix of six streets in three districts.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available via figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28522265 (ref. 62).

Code availability

The Python code to implement the color analysis within this study is available via GitHub at https://github.com/yyt-2378/city_AI_analysis/tree/main.

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Acknowledgements

We thank H. C. Kiang, C. T. Chuang and all members of the Social and Cultural Geography Research Group (SCGRG) at the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, for their invaluable insights and constructive feedback on this research. We would also like to thank the photographer D. Soh, the National Library Board of Singapore, the National Archives of Singapore and the URA of Singapore for permitting us to use historical photographs for this paper. We acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars (52225005 to S.-J.C.) in China and the Heritage Research Grant (HRG-057 to X.X.) provided by the National Heritage Board in Singapore.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

    Xuan Xue & Zihui Tian

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China

    Yaotian Yang

  3. School of Architecture, Southeast University, Nanjing, China

    Junqi Wang & Shi-Jie Cao

  4. Global Centre for Clean Air Research, School of Sustainability, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of Surrey, Surrey, UK

    Shi-Jie Cao

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  1. Xuan Xue
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Contributions

X.X. conceived the project ideas and designed the research framework. X.X. and Z.T. collected the image and textual data. Z.T. and Y.Y. implemented the computational analysis in Python. X.X. implemented the non-computational analysis. X.X., Z.T. and Y.Y. interpreted the results and co-wrote the manuscript. J.W. and S.-J.C. were involved in the discussion and manuscript revisions.

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Correspondence to Shi-Jie Cao.

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Nature Cities thanks Ignacio Cabodevilla-Artieda and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Comparison of shophouse images before and after preservation.

Comparison of shophouse images before and after preservation. a, The shophouses situated at 2 Blair Road. The pre-conservation photo is credited to Kouo Shang Wei. b, The shophouses situated at12 Ann Siang Road. The pre-conservation photo is credited to R. Ian Lloyd. c, The shophouses situated at 17 Keong Saik Road. The pre-conservation photo is credited to National Library Board. d, The shophouses situated at 19 Pehang Street. The pre-conservation photo is credited to National Library Board. e, The shophouses situated at 39 Keong Saik Road. The pre-conservation photo is credited to R. Ian Lloyd.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Comparison of shophouse images before and after preservation(continued).

Comparison of shophouse images before and after preservation(continued). a, The shophouses situated at 59 Bussorah Street. The pre-conservation photo is credited to R. Ian Lloyd. b, The shophouses situated at 41 Kampong Kapor Road. The pre-conservation photo is credited to R. Ian Lloyd. c, The shophouses situated at 42 Club Street. The pre-conservation photo is credited to R. Ian Lloyd. d, The shophouses situated at former house of Tan Teng Niah. The pre-conservation photo is credited to Urban Redevelopment Authority. e, The shophouses situated at 9 Roberts Lane. The pre-conservation photo is credited to R. Ian Lloyd.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Historical paintings and postcards depicting the shophouse streetscape.

Historical paintings and postcards depicting the shophouse streetscape. a, An 1840s view of Singapore from Government Hil, where the shophouse streetscape is rendered in a monochrome palette. Source: National Museum of Singapore. b, A painting by Government Surveyor J.T. Thomson from 1846, depicting a view of Singapore from Government Hill, where the shophouse streetscape appears in monochrome. Courtesy of National Museum of Singapore. c, An 1886 chromolithograph of the Singapore River by the Krebs Lithography Company. Although Plain Style shophouses still predominated, their colours became increasingly varied, indicating a departure from the earlier monochrome aesthetic. Courtesy of National Museum of Singapore. d, A postcard issued in 1920 showcasing Sago Lane in Singapore where the shophouse streetscape features pastel hues. Courtesy of Cheah Jin Seng.

Extended Data Fig. 4 Sample for colour Analysis of three shophouse styles.

Sample for colour Analysis of three shophouse styles. a, Plain Style. b, Eclectic Style. c, Modern Style.

Extended Data Fig. 5 Colour and scene analysis of Buffalo Road.

Colour and scene analysis of Buffalo Road. a, Buffalo Road Plan View. b, Dominant Colours of Street Buildings. c, In-situ Scene Images.

Extended Data Fig. 6 Colour analysis of 80 shophouse streets.

Colour analysis of 80 shophouse streets. a, Colour Complexity Chart. b, Colour Harmony Chart. c, Average Saturation and Value (Brightness) of Street Colours.

Extended Data Table 1 Street names and their corresponding codes
Full size table

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Xue, X., Tian, Z., Yang, Y. et al. Sustaining the local color of a global city. Nat Cities 2, 400–412 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44284-025-00225-x

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