Raffles Hotel, Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (now CHIJMES), old St Joseph's Institution and old Tao Nan School. Often the approach to matters of style was highly eclectic, and builders combined a variety of stylistic elements from various European, and some non-European, sources in the same building. Many colonial-era buildings are still found in the city, as a result of aggressive conservation efforts of Singapore's built heritage since the 1980s. Art Deco architecture Singapore has a wealth of Art Deco architecture, dating mainly from the 1920s and 1930s. The style was especially popular in commercial architecture, like factories and offices. Often, Art Deco style ornaments and elements were applied onto otherwise typical shophouses or bungalows. In other cases, Art Deco was applied to newly emergent types of buildings, like Kallang Airport (by the Public Works Department), the Ford Factory (by Emile Brizay), or the Cathay Building (by Frank Brewer) and the Asia Insurance Building (by Ng Keng Siang). Features of this style in the local context included a penchant for inscribing the date of the erection of the building prominently on its facade, the use of projecting horizontal fins as sun shading devices over windows and the use of flagpoles. Quite apart from the aesthetics of this style, the Art Deco period also marked the introduction of modern construction technologies like reinforced concrete in Singapore. Post-colonial modern architecture Following the Neoclassical and Art Deco phases, Singaporean architecture moved in a decidedly modernist direction after the war. Post-war austerity encouraged the use of clean, stark and simple modernist forms and surfaces devoid of ornament. Modernist architecture was also preferred for the many 'cookie-cutter' or standardised design public buildings being built at the time, such as schools, clinics, factories and especially public housing. Public housing Public housing architecture in Singapore dates back to the 1930s with the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT), a colonial government agency, embarked on a building programme to address a shortage of affordable housing in Singapore. Initially, the SIT focussed on housing middle and lower-middle class Asians. The most prominent example of their pre-war efforts was the Tiong Bahru estate, where many low-rise, four-storey Art Deco style apartment blocks, shops, markets and other amenities were built on the city fringe. This programme continued after the war, with the Art Deco style exchanged for a simple modern aesthetic. Although the estate was popular and praised for spacious and green