Turning to the past

SINGAPORE — To unravel some of the curiosities of the Red Dot Traffic building, six students from the Singapore University of Technology (SUTD) will spend the next six months speaking to retired traffic policemen and revisiting their memories of the old Traffic Police Headquarters, which was once located in the building on 28 Maxwell Road.

The effort is part of the students’ final-year project, which will culminate in a social media campaign and a heritage event for Singaporeans to learn more about the building’s history, said team member Cassandra Tan, 21. Her team consists of students across the architecture and sustainable design faculty and engineering product development faculty.

The Ministry of Law is also reaching out to retired traffic policemen to identify previous uses of the rooms in the building, which served solely as the Traffic Police Headquarters from the 1930s to 1999.

“There is a stretch of the building where there are no windows. For some time, it has puzzled us — what were those rooms used for?” said Minlaw deputy secretary Han Kok Juan. “Apparently, (this is) to be confirmed, because there used to be barracks, those (rooms) were used as kitchens. The slits would allow ventilation.”

The building holds many fond memories for TP division training officer Said Nasir, who was based there between 1975 and 1999. “We do our briefings, fall in, inspections … reports (and) everything together in the same building. There’s a sense of camaderie. Everyone knows each other very well,” said the 62-year-old.