2 3

Everyday Modernism:
Supported by
Architecture & Society in Singapore

The views expressed here are solely those of the authors National Library Board, Singapore Cataloguing
in their private capacities and do not in any way represent in Publication Data
the views of the National Heritage Board and/or any Name(s): Chang, Jiat-Hwee. | Zhuang, Justin, author. |
government agencies Soh, Darren, photographer.
Title: Everyday modernism : architecture & society in
By Jiat-Hwee Chang and Justin Zhuang
© 2023 Jiat-Hwee Chang and Justin Zhuang Singapore / by Jiat-Hwee Chang and Justin
Zhuang ; with photographs by Darren Soh.
Published under the Ridge Books imprint by: Description: Singapore : NUS Press, [2023] With photographs by Darren Soh
NUS Press Identifier(s): ISBN 978-981-325-187-8 (paperback)
National University of Singapore Subject(s): LCSH: Architecture--Singapore--History--
AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link 20th century. | Buildings--Singapore--History--
Singapore 117569 20th century. | Architecture and society--
Singapore--History--20th century. |
Fax: (65) 6774-0652 Singapore--Buildings, structures, etc.
E-mail: [email protected] Classification: DDC 720.959570904--dc23
Website: http://nuspress.nus.edu.sg
Cover image: Peninsula Plaza
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not photographed by Darren Soh
be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic Designed by: Hanson Ho / H55
or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or Printed by: AC Dominie
any information storage and retrieval system now known
or to be invented, without written permission from the ISBN 978-981-325-187-8 (paper)
Publisher.

People’s Park (1968), Tan Wee Lee and Peter B. K. Soo of the Housing & Development Board. Hong Lim Complex (1980), Housing & Development Board.
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction TRAVEL
Everyday Modernism: The Singapore Vernacular 67 18 Market Street Car Park: Up, Up … and Who Pays? 184

19 Pan-Island Expressway: Speeding Up and Spreading Out Modern Life 190

LIVE
20 Pedestrian Overhead Bridges: Staying Safe Amidst Accelerated Development 196
1 Public Housing: The Many Shapes of Home 86
21 Interchanges: The “Nerve Centre” of an Efficient Public Transport 202
2 People’s Park: Pioneering Integrated Living in a Denser City 92

3 Futura: The Past and Future of Luxury High-rise Apartments 96 CONNECT

4 Pandan Valley: The Domestication of “Rural” Singapore 102 22 Public Schools: In Search of a Flexible and Identifiable “Instructional Equipment” 208

5 Pearl Bank Apartments: How Can We Maintain the High Life? 108 23 Institutes of Higher Education: Systems Planning to Support a Technocratic State 214

24 Institutional Buildings: A New Monumentality 220

PLAY
25 Public Libraries: “Palaces for the People” 226
6 Cinemas: The Architecture of Advertisement 116
26 Community Centres: Modernising the “Central Nervous System” of Singapore 232
7 Shopping Centres: Moving Retail from the Streets to the Interior 122
27 Hawker Centres: Regulating Itinerant Individuals into a Social Institution 238
8 Hotels: Singapore as a Tropical Asian Paradise 128
28 Lucky Plaza: A Mall for the Migrants Who Modernised Singapore 244
9 Lookout Towers: Views of Singapore’s Modern Development 134

10 East Coast Park: “The Singapore Way” of Recreation 140 PRAY

11 HDB Playgrounds: Sandboxes for Moulding Model Citizens 144 29 Churches: Bringing God Closer to the Suburbs and the People 252

12 City Council Pools: Swimming for Health, Leisure and Survival 148 30 Cinema-Churches: From a “House of Pictures” to a “House of Prayers” 256

13 Former Singapore Badminton Hall: Financial Gymnastics and Sporting Venues 152 31 Darul Aman Mosque: A Modern Revival of the Traditional 260

32 Columbaria: Raising Up the Dead for the Living 266

WORK
14 Shenton Way: Singapore’s Commercial Centre Grows Up! 160 Index 272

15 Industrial Spaces: Housing Industrialisation, then a Tech Revolution 166 Image Credits 284

16 Jurong Town Hall Road: The Industrial Future as Brutalist 172 Biographies 288

17 Tan Boon Liat Building: A Modern Godown for the Creative Economy 178 Acknowledgements 289
66
Introduction

Everyday Modernism: The Singapore Vernacular

Like over 80 per cent of Singapore’s resident what we call “everyday modernism”—is the
population, all three of us—Jiat-Hwee, Justin, subject of this book. Everyday modernism is not
and Darren—live in public housing flats. And like just about the built environment. It is also deeply
everyone who grew up in the city-state since the entangled with our social, political, economic
1970s, we are surrounded by, and our lives are and cultural processes of modernisation and
enacted in, a built environment that is utterly conditions of modernities. As a concept, it is
modernist. Besides public housing—all of which both specific and general. While “everyday
are modernist and mostly planned and designed modernism” arose from our study of the built
by the state agency, the Housing & Development environment in Singapore, it is also a broad
Board (HDB)—we socialise with others in modern reworking and reframing of existing architectural
markets, hawker centres, schools, public libraries and urban theories.
and community centres. We spend our leisure
time in modern shopping malls, swimming pools, TRANSCENDING THE “EVERYDAY”
playgrounds and parks. We work in modern office
towers and high-rise flatted factories, and some The word “everyday” appears straightforward
of us even pray in modern religious buildings. and self-evident, but its use in the field of
Getting around Singapore also means travelling architecture has always been a part of what
via public transport interchanges, expressways architectural historian Dell Upton describes as a
and pedestrian overhead bridges—all designed “dichotomous and hierarchical thinking about the
based on modern transportation planning landscape”.1 Everyday architecture is traditionally
principles. When we die, we, or what remains of seen in opposition to Architecture with a capital
us, are just as likely to reside in modern high- “A”. While the latter refers to the formal works
density, space-saving columbaria that have by professional architects, the former describes
displaced cemeteries in the city. non-pedigreed vernacular structures by
The quotidian and taken-for-granted anonymous builders. Or as another architectural
modernist built environment that surrounds and historian Nikolaus Pevsner has characterised as
structures our everyday lives in Singapore—or simply the utilitarian structure of the bicycle shed
68 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 69 The Singapore Vernacular

that is distinct from the aesthetic achievement formal inventiveness, bold visions and the can-do Jurong Town Hall after its completion. (see Jurong Town Among the first three statutory boards
of the Lincoln Cathedral in England.2 Even spirit of the architects that designed them.10 Hall Road)
Everyday modernism to us combines the established after Singapore gained self-
when architects, designers and planners began Singapore’s built environment also consists of heroic with the ordinary and the iconic with the government in 1959 were the Economic
to appreciate, rather than dismiss, everyday ordinary modern designs, such as public housing, inconspicuous. Whatever their spatial and formal Development Board (EDB) and HDB to promote
architecture, they simply inverted the hierarchy markets, hawker centres, swimming pools, public attributes, provenance and authorship, these industrial development and provide low-cost public
while leaving the dichotomy intact. The pioneers parks, schools, libraries, community centres modernist buildings affect while being affected housing respectively. Their early establishment
of postmodern architecture, Robert Venturi and and factories. These make up much of the city- by the conduct of our everyday lives. Everyday showed that mass housing and urban development
Denise Scott Brown, for example, hailed the pop state’s everyday environment and are often taken modernism is both the outcome and the vehicle for were closely tied to economic development and
aesthetics of Main Street and Las Vegas in the for granted and seldom acclaimed. It perhaps socio-economic development, modernisation and industrialisation. One of EDB’s earliest projects
United States while criticising high modernism.3 reflects how architectural discourse privileges nation-building in Singapore. was to plan and build Singapore’s main industrial
Other scholars have also followed the trail blazed the extraordinary over the ordinary, which is so estate, Jurong Town, for the many factories and
by urban theorist Margaret Crawford in drawing ubiquitous that it seems unworthy of scholarly MODERNISM AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL STATE plants it was attracting industrialists to open. More
from French theorists Henri Lefebvre and Michel attention. The neglect may be due to the absence than a home for factories, the envisioned “garden
de Certeau to celebrate the lived spaces and of conventional design authorship too. Unlike Modernism arrived in Singapore during the early industrial town” also had a significant residential
grounded practices of everyday urbanism against heroic modernism, which was by architects 20th century with colonial entrepôt capitalism, component and a variety of social and recreational
the abstract spaces planned and imposed by in private practice, these everyday modern and it developed further with colonial social amenities such as the Jurong Bird Park, Jurong
experts, bureaucrats and capitalists.4 structures and buildings in Singapore were welfare programmes such as the construction Drive-in Cinema and the Jurong Park Complex
Such hierarchical dichotomy exists in the planned and designed to a great extent by those of public housing and schools.12 However, it was comprising of the Chinese and the Japanese
discussions of Singapore’s largely modernist working in government agencies such as the only with the decolonisation of Singapore that Gardens.16 By 1968, the JTC was established to
built environment too. In the realm of HDB, Public Works Department (PWD) and Jurong modernism brought about large-scale territorial take over from EDB as “the work associated with
“Architecture”, scholars, writers, photographers Town Corporation (JTC). These organisations’ and built environmental transformations on the the management and the development [of Jurong
and the architecture fraternity have singled ethos of subsuming the individual under the island. Amidst a politically turbulent and socially Town] have [sic] become so large and complex”.17
out exemplary modernist buildings such as the collective means that such built works tend not to unstable period characterised by labour strikes While EDB and JTC developed industrial spaces,
National Theatre (1963–1986) by Alfred Wong be attributed to any specific architect. and political unrest, Singapore attained self- HDB focused on mass housing and built upon the
Partnership; Singapore Conference Hall and The dichotomous and hierarchical thinking government from the British in 1959. The newly work of its colonial predecessor, the Singapore
Trade Union House (1965) by Malayan Architects about modernism in Singapore, however, does independent government led by the People’s Improvement Trust (SIT). The SIT had cumulatively
Co-partnership; People’s Park Complex (1973) not hold up to scrutiny. For instance, the divide Action Party (PAP) adopted new strategies to produced 23,000 flats or 10 per cent of the city’s
and Golden Mile Complex (1972-3) by Design between architects working in private practice address the crises—including turning to export- housing stock by 1958, a figure that architectural
Partnership; Jurong Town Hall (1974) by and those in state agencies is not rigid and oriented industrialisation, stabilising industrial historian Miles Glendinning considered as “virtually
Architects Team 3; and Pearl Bank Apartments impermeable. Not only did many architects go relations and disciplining the labour force, among unprecedented within any European colonial
(1976) by Archurban Architects Planners.5 They from working in the public sector to running others—to create social stability and economic territory”.18 However, Singapore still faced a dire
are typically celebrated by acclaiming the their own private practices,11 both sides have also growth. These strategies became even more housing landscape characterised by an inner city
creativity of their architects as is the tendency collaborated to design various public buildings crucial after Singapore’s 1963 merger with of congested shophouses encircled by insanitary
of traditional architectural historiography.6 The over the decades under diverse circumstances. Malaysia fell apart two years later. The resulting kampongs around the urban fringes.19 The HDB
architects involved helmed private practices Several heroic modernist buildings, such as the loss of its hinterland due to the separation began building public housing at a rate much
and they included notable figures such as Lim National Theatre, Singapore Conference Hall called into question Singapore’s prospects as an greater than the SIT, but it did not significantly
Chong Keat, Alfred Wong, William S. W. Lim, and Trade Union House and Jurong Town Hall, independent nation.13 deviate from previous planning and design norms
Tay Kheng Soon and Tan.7 All who have been while owned by the state, were commissioned The PAP government pressed on with rolling at first. One of the earliest types of housing that
recognised for their lifetime achievements by through competitions for architects in private out massive socio-economic development HDB developed for the victims of the 1961 Bukit Ho
either the city’s professional body for architects, practice to solicit the best designs and help build programmes that dwarfed prior changes even Swee fire and to resettle kampong “squatters”20
the Singapore Institute of Architects, or national local capacity simultaneously. Many privately as there were continuities in the forms and was “emergency housing”, a typology established
agencies in charge of promoting architecture and owned modernist buildings were also built on norms of modernisation.14 The state subsidised by the SIT. The HDB also continued developing
design such as the DesignSingapore Council.8 land sold by the government as part of its sale the construction of many social and physical Queenstown, which was first planned by SIT as
In this book, we call these exemplary post- of sites programme, including the People’s infrastructures to attract investors to support an Singapore’s first self-sufficient “satellite town”21.
independence buildings “heroic modernism” for Park Complex, Golden Mile Complex, and Pearl industrialisation programme. While the social However, HDB doubled the projected capacity
two reasons. First, they were built during what Bank Apartments. In other words, they were infrastructure allowed Singapore to provide of the town to house some 150,000 residents
Alfred Wong characterised as the “heroic period” made possible by an urban renewal programme low-cost and high-quality labour, the physical to better meet the needs of Singapore’s rapidly
for the local architectural profession, when its carefully coordinated and implemented by the developments provided savings in the investors’ growing population. It was achieved by adding two
members were entrusted with designing the state. Beyond such collaborations, exemplary establishment and operation costs.15 State agencies more neighbourhoods to the five originally planned
major projects that laid the foundation for the examples of heroic modernism have also known as statutory boards were specifically and increasing the population density
rapid socio-economic developments of the new shaped its ordinary brethren, as seen in the established to expedite the comprehensive of each.22
nation.9 Second, we use “heroic” to evoke the string of brutalist buildings that came up around planning and implementation of these projects.
70 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 71 The Singapore Vernacular

NEW TOWNS AND MODERN LIVING stood out with their rectilinear forms and plain infrastructure too. They were made up of public argued that the colonial masterplan’s proposal
surfaces, offering residents flats with new kinds housing and facilities such as hawker centres, for the city centre had “a somewhat passive
Queenstown was Singapore’s earliest experiment of layouts and spatial configurations. Modernist markets, polyclinics, schools, community acceptance of existing conditions” that
in decentralisation and self-sufficiency. It helped new towns such as Queenstown inverted the centres, parks, sports complexes and even suggested “a general reluctance to believe at all
move the population out of the congested city figure-ground relationship of traditional cities playgrounds, in which the state subsidised in the feasibility of accomplishing schemes of
centre and into what was envisioned as “a self- too. They had no streets and squares, and the housing, healthcare, education, recreation and any bolder cast”.37 In witnessing the beginning
contained and balanced community”23 served by sense of open spaces and enclosures was also other social services. Such developments can be of the post-independence government’s robust
an array of commercial, educational, recreational, unlike shophouse districts and urban kampongs. regarded as an integral part of what sociologist response to housing shortages, Lorange felt
religious and even industrial facilities—making The distinction was even more pronounced in Manuel Castells and colleagues called the “sui that the masterplan could take on “a more
Queenstown “quite independent of the City HDB’s next satellite town, Toa Payoh, which was generis welfare state” of Singapore.32 Indeed, the comprehensive and radical approach”.38 This
proper”.24 The amenities included many firsts the first to be fully developed by the agency. government spent 40 per cent of its expenditure arrived in 1963 when another team of UN
in Singapore: the first full-time branch of the It accommodated twice the population of on social development and welfare in the early experts, Charles Abram, Susumu Kobe and Otto
National Library (see Public Libraries), the first sports Queenstown with what was regarded at that time 1960s.33 Low-cost public housing and the various Koenigsberger, visited the city to advise on “the
complex in a public housing estate and the first as an “extremely high density” estate of 500 amenities provided in new towns served as what establishment of a comprehensive physical
flatted factory. (see Industrial Spaces) Queenstown also persons per acre.28 The residents were spread some scholars called wage subsidy, ensuring plan for the development of Singapore”.39
consisted of a mix of standardised building across four neighbourhoods of housing estates that many Singaporeans could attain a fairly The trio also felt that the 1955 masterplan
designs, such as its public housing blocks (see Public that were organised around the town centre and high standard of living despite the relatively low underestimated population growth and criticised
Housing)
and schools (see Public Schools), as well as one- connected via a circular road system. The town wages in the 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore, its proposed radial growth pattern for being
offs like the iconic Blessed Sacrament Church, centre was designed as a pedestrianised mall having to pay regular rent and mortgages also overly conservative, outdated (as “[r]adial
(see Churches)
Mujahidin Mosque (see Darul Aman Mosque) and and lined with four-storey developments with encouraged public housing residents to become growth belongs to the pre-motorcar age”), and
Queenstown Cinema and Bowling Centre. (see ground floor shops and flats above, reminiscent disciplined wage labourers. Taken together, the “unsuitable for a modern metropolis”.40 They
Cinemas)
The array of buildings were the works of of traditional shophouses.29 Anchoring the building of new towns and public housing served eventually drew up a diagrammatic plan that
HDB as well as private architectural firms like nodes of the L-shaped mall were large squares, as an important foundation for Singapore’s rapid treated the whole island as a single integrated
Iversen Van Sitteren and Partners and Chee Soon key public buildings such as a library, and industrialisation and accelerated socio-economic urban entity and served as a “guiding concept”
Wah Chartered Architects. Another government four towering apartment blocks to guide development from the 1960s. for Singapore’s urban development. Known as
agency involved in Queenstown was the PWD, a pedestrians in the town centre and welcome “Ring City Singapore”, the sketch plan consists
former colonial institution that was instrumental approaching vehicles.30 Next to Toa Payoh town DEVELOPING AN “INTEGRATED URBAN ENTITY” “a chain or necklace of [coastal] settlements
in the early development of Singapore and centre was also a recreational belt consisting around a central open area” that includes a
continued to be so after independence when of a 4.8-hectare garden, a 2-hectare swimming The rise of new towns across Singapore was nature reserve, two airports at Paya Lebar and
it became a government agency.25 It was complex as well as a 3,000-seat sports stadium. aided by the finalisation of the First Concept Tengah, and other green spaces for recreational,
responsible for the planning and construction of Toa Payoh exemplified HDB’s “neighbourhood Plan in 1971. The plan established a “new town” agricultural and infrastructural uses.41 It became
public buildings like schools and libraries, as well principle” of planning where the resident prototype model and shows the inextricable the basis of the First Concept Plan drawn up
as infrastructures such as roads, bus shelters, population is organised to support the provision relationship between housing and urbanisation by the government-appointed State and City
drains and sewerage systems across the nation, of various amenities. The “town centre” is where in Singapore.34 New towns like Queenstown Planning (SCP) team established in 1967.42 In
including in public housing estates. major facilities that require a larger population and Toa Payoh allowed the government to the Concept Plan, the ring became smaller and
A common denominator of all the buildings size to be viable are located, and it is supported resettle the population that previously resided further away from the coasts. It also intersects
developed in Queenstown was their modernist by “neighbourhood centres” and “neighbourhood in the overcrowded slums of the inner city and with an east–west corridor of development on the
design, which were strikingly different from sub-centres” that cater to smaller groups of squatters at the urban fringes. The completion south of the island.43
the shophouses and urban kampong houses residents. The apartment blocks are organised of a certain quantity of public housing was thus Singapore’s approach to urban renewal,
that made up Singapore’s traditional built around these three centres of activity, and an “essential ingredient”35 for launching an urban however, turned out to be even more radical
environment. This was similar in many developing they ideally should be within walking distance renewal programme that only began around than what the UN team recommended. For
nations in the mid 20th century, which used of at least one to create a “neighbourhood of the completion of HDB’s first five-year building instance, the latter explicitly “rejected the idea
modernism as an instrument for rapid social convenience”. The comprehensively planned programme in 1965. of the wholesale demolition of large quarters”
transformations.26 In his seminal work The modern environment of Toa Payoh became the The Concept Plan embraced a radically and articulated the principles of urban renewal
Modernist City, anthropologist James Holston model for subsequent HDB new towns developed different planning approach from an earlier in Singapore as a combination of conservation,
argued that the use of architectural aesthetics in the mid to late 1970s, such as Woodlands, Ang masterplan drawn up by the colonial government rehabilitation and rebuilding.44 However,
and planning techniques that were radically Mo Kio, Bedok, Clementi and Jurong West.31 They for Singapore in 1955. The latter proposed conservation was largely ignored until the
different from those of the past was key to utterly restructured everyday lives in Singapore dividing the main island into central, urban 1980s. A tabula rasa approach of demolition and
achieving such accelerated transformations.27 as HDB public housing became the prevailing and rural planning districts,36 which was later rebuilding to urban renewal was adopted instead,
Compared to past low-rise housing, HDB living environment. New towns contained a criticised by United Nations (UN) appointed due to land use constraints and development
apartment towers were massive both in terms of significant proportion of the architecture of planner Erik Lorange when he visited Singapore considerations during Singapore’s early
height and their sheer number of units. They also everyday modernism, which served as a social in 1962 to advise on its planning. Lorange nationhood. When the government launched its
72 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 73 The Singapore Vernacular

sale of sites programme in 1967, for instance, remake Singapore into a comprehensively planned that perspective, one can begin to see how the kinds of social lives. In other words, modernist
it included many parcels of land that were modernist built environment, which we seek to use of a building is a set of situated practices buildings are not products of reductive
amalgamated from small plots compulsorily illustrate in our book. that particularises the universal and localises the abstraction and thus alienating environments,
acquired by the state.45 These were created by global. Likewise, a building can be used beyond as observed by many critics, but are polyvalent
the Urban Redevelopment Department (URD), LIVING WITH MODERNISM what is prescribed and intended by the designers minimal artefacts pregnant with multiple latent
which demolished shophouses previously and authorities.56 It also has affordances, or latent uses and meanings. Le Roux described this
standing on these plots, provided the necessary As with many modernist planning and architec- functions and meanings, that might deviate understanding of modernism that challenged
urban infrastructure for immediate development, tural schemes, Singapore’s housing and urbanisa- from or even subvert the original intended the abstract-lived spatial bifurcation as “porous
and came up with design and planning guidelines tion schemes from the 1960s and 1970s can be use. Affordances are often manifold, and they modernism”. Although her observations and
on the type and intensity of development. For seen as a part of what political scientist James unfold in multidirectional ways.57 Seen together arguments stemmed from African contexts, we
the first three sales in 1967, 1969 and 1970, the Scott famously conceptualised as the “high with the user as not a passive recipient but an also see this “porous modernism” in Singapore.
URD even provided fairly detailed designs for modernist” ideology of the state.50 He character- active agent of change, one can imagine how This multivalent porosity is evident in Singapore’s
the proposed developments.46 They were always ised such schemes as having formal order that they come together to transform a design. As public housing, which has received the most
modernist and often came in the new form of was equated with functional order; monofunc- architectural historian and theorist Kenny Cupers scholarly attention. Sociologist Chua Beng Huat,
high-rise podium-tower blocks, which signalled tional zoning and narrow criteria of efficiency; points out, focusing on use helps us construct for example, has shown that the void decks of
the beginning of an industrialised economy and a root-and-branch (or tabula rasa) approach “an alternative history of architecture”, one that HDB flats accommodated different users and
and contrasted against the existing low-rise to urban planning.51 Indeed, post-independence is more “relational” and “connects the accounts uses, many unexpected by the planners. They
environment. URD’s sale of sites programmes Singapore’s preoccupation with economic growth of architects, projects, and ideas with a larger include the daily gatherings of residents to the
ultimately gave birth to modern high-rise and modernisation, while also working with limited social, spatial, and material history”.58 less frequent use for Chinese funeral wakes and
typologies for offices, hotels, private residences resources and capital then, prioritised efficiency, In architecture, use is often equated with Malay wedding receptions. While void decks
and mixed-use complexes to serve the different low-cost and functionality in its criteria for design various modes of inhabitation. The differences have designated uses like bicycle parking, there
sectors of Singapore’s emerging new economy.47 and planning. State agencies also produced de- and dissonances between architectural are also misuses like skateboarding and playing
The first three sales, for instance, led to the signs that were premised on various rationales of production and consumption or intended use football, which are explicitly banned.61 Other than
earliest office towers on Shenton Way, (see Shenton Way) optimisation and forms of standardisation. Thus, and actual use are also attributed to the gaps the public spaces, the private interior spaces of
mixed-use complexes such as the People’s Park the modernist built environment that emerged in between these two conceptions of space. On the HDB flats were also built with basic fixtures
Complex (see Shopping Centres) and Golden Mile Complex Singapore simplified and reduced the complex the one hand, there is the abstract space of and finishes so that the residents, most of whom
and high-density residential towers like Pearl social and natural world in a manner that Scott modernism planned and intended by state, own their flats, could adjust the layouts and
Bank Apartments. theorised as prone to fail. capital and their appointed experts. On the renovate the spaces to suit their own needs and
What is also notable about URD was that Yet, such top-down, high modernist schemes other hand, there are the lived spaces emerging tastes.62 In addition to supporting different uses
it started out as a department within the HDB did not fail in Singapore. There could be many through everyday practices. The distinctions and their social lives, accommodating physical
before it was restructured into a statutory board reasons behind the failure of an architectural between them, however, are not just down changes and individual expressions, modernist
renamed as the Urban Redevelopment Authority or urban scheme and it is often too simplistic to their dissimilar conceptions. They can also buildings in Singapore have also been adapted
(URA) in 1974. Whether it was urbanisation to attribute any failure solely to the design and be attributed to how spatial and temporal and appropriated in other ways to become the
or constructing public housing, both URA’s ignore the social and economic conditions.52 In the dimensions of architecture interact, notes writer city-state’s vernacular. Our notion of “everyday
and HDB’s efforts were enabled by the same case of Singapore, its modernist public housing Stewart Brand, modernism” is an attempt to encapsulate such
mechanism of land acquisition that accelerated and urban planning have been widely lauded lived and vernacular dimensions. While covering
urban development in the post-independence and hailed as a success, including recognition [t]he word ‘building’ contains the double the movement’s more familiar associations with
years. The Land Acquisition Act of 1966 replaced by United Nation’s World Habitat Award.53 The reality. It means both ‘the action of the verb the developmental state in Singapore, we also
a former colonial-era ordinance to give the concurrence of the three of us who live in public BUILD’ and ‘that which is built’—both verb look at the “afterlives” of its buildings.
government greater powers to acquire land housing and choose to write a book about it is of and noun, both action and result. Whereas
at low cost in order to build affordable public course also an indication—albeit a minor one—of ‘architecture’ may strive to be permanent, a THE LIVES AND DEATHS OF BUILDINGS
housing and infrastructure projects. Thus, public its success. Our book, however, is not interested ‘building’ is always building and rebuilding.
agencies could acquire land compulsorily at in rehashing these conventional indicators of The idea is crystalline, the fact fluid.59 By the “afterlife” of a building, we are
minimal compensation from private landowners successes. Rather, we would like to move beyond referring to what happens after the presumed
and carry out urban development that served production-centric accounts of architecture Architectural historian and theorist Hannah “completion” of a building in conventional
the greater public good.48 Some analysts and focus on their mediation, reception and le Roux has showed how modernist buildings architectural understanding. This refers to it
have argued that this was crucial for the consumption to help us better understand the are evolving entities, constantly being used being constructed, which roughly coincides with
developmental state, whose raison d’être was to impact of modernism in Singapore.54 and reused, designed and modified through when a building is opened for use and begins
intervene to promote industrialisation and social One approach is to understand modern what she calls “occupation”.60 Le Roux further to develop a social life. One way to explore the
developments that were essential for economic architecture from the perspective of the user, who argued that the minimal and abstract forms of temporal dimensions of a building—its various
growth.49 It most certainly empowered state is neither a universal or undifferentiated category modernist buildings are supportive of changes lives from commission to construction, from
entities such as the HDB, URA, JTC and PWD to but a socio-historically constituted entity.55 From as they have many potentialities for different “completion” to demolition—is through writing a
74 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 75 The Singapore Vernacular

building biography. This method developed by be socially endowed with certain value and various privately owned strata-titled modernist EXPANDING MODERNISM INTO THE EVERYDAY
historian Neil Harris and refined by geographers thus be deemed worthy of conservation for buildings, many of which are even younger. Even
Donald McNeill and Kim McNamara, goes posterity. After which its economic value buildings executed in the same architectural The complex relationship between the form of
beyond the limited understanding of a building might even appreciate. The maintenance and style can elicit very different responses due a building and its use, or its morphology and
as a static and autonomous object frozen in repair work necessary to prolong the life and to their state of upkeep. For instance, the function, are captured by the word “type” in
time. Instead, it captures the building’s various maintain the value of a building requires both negative public perceptions of Pearl Bank architectural discourse. Type can be used to refer
stages of existence and how it is a dynamic the commitment of financial resources and a Apartments, Golden Mile Complex and People’s to either form or use, but it often combines both
entity intimately bound up with wider social, socio-cultural reorientation towards what STS Park Complex are frequently attributed to senses.75 Such flexibility and complexity define
cultural, economic and political processes.63 (science, technology and society) scholar Steven their brutalist aesthetics. It is what purportedly the organising principle of our book. Instead
A building biography might reveal that the J. Jackson calls “broken world thinking”, which renders these buildings “brutal” and turns of conventional building types, we use six key
fate of a building is tied up with the economic takes the fragility of our socio-natural world them into eyesores,74 even though brutalism’s verbs—live, play, work, connect, travel and pray—
reality of it being a real estate asset planned, seriously and sees the acts of maintenance and etymological origins is in béton brute, the to capture the rich interplay between forms and
designed and built based on specific financial repair as being critical.68 French words for “raw concrete”, rather than uses. Each verb heading introduces essays that
calculus; appreciating and depreciating with Several modernist buildings discussed in the literal association with harshness and use a combination of building biographies and
time, shifting norms and boom-and-bust our book are under the threat of demolition due crudeness. Yet, well-maintained state-owned biographies of building types to tell socio-cultural
cycles.64 Or it might disclose how maintenance to poor maintenance and inadequate repair. buildings with the same brutalist aesthetics, histories and reveal more about Singapore
and repair are essential in preventing a This has also affected their social perception. like the Jurong Town Hall and the former society. The essays cover building types that are
building’s rapid descent into obsolescence Although the Golden Mile Complex was recently Subordinate Courts (see Institutional Buildings), do not typical (that is, widely replicated) and those that
or at least slowing its decay from use and gazetted for conservation, it was once called prompt similar negative associations at all. are exceptional, and also discusses how some of
weathering over time.65 Obsolescence is not a “vertical slum” by a nominated member of The continual maintenance of a building the buildings slipped in and out of types through
just down to the physical or material properties parliament.69 Its neglect partly stems from the or letting it deteriorate for eventual demolition changes in form and use. Our focus on types
of a building. It is perceived as much as it is building owners’ unwillingness to spend on what are just two ends of a spectrum in dealing also hints at the standardised types that were
real, strongly influenced by a “social process of they perceive to be an ageing and depreciating with temporal changes in a building. Our book produced by state agencies for housing, schools
endowment” as architect Jeremy Till has argued real estate asset, which only exacerbates physical explores a whole gradation of other types and factories, such that a single design could be
using sociologist Michael Thompson’s “rubbish decline and the social stereotype. In most cases, of changes in physical structure, use and replicated many times to speed up the process
theory”.66 The value we attribute to all artefacts, this vicious cycle would lead to such privately perception in Singapore. For instance, many of design and construction. Some of these
including buildings, is socially malleable. owned strata-titled buildings in Singapore being ageing modernist strata-titled buildings that are standardised types exist in the sub- or supra-
Besides having economic values as real estate put up for collective sale and redevelopment— not well regarded by the mainstream society building scales too and are more infrastructure
assets, buildings also have socio-cultural values. often giving its multiple owners each a have attracted shops and services catering to than buildings. Among those featured are multi-
Our judgement of whether a building is beautiful tidy profit. Such was the case in Pearl Bank the various marginalised migrant communities storey car parks (see Market Street Car Park), pedestrian
or ugly often depends on the social construction Apartments, which was sold, demolished and, at in Singapore due to their low rent. Among the overhead bridges (see Pedestrian Overhead Bridges),
of taste. The way we assign cultural significance the time of writing, was being redeveloped into well-known examples are Golden Mile Complex public transport interchanges (see Interchanges) and
to a building also depends on who and what another condominium, barely four decades after for the Thai community, Peninsula Plaza for expressways. (see Pan-Island Expressway) Type could also
kind of events are associated with it and how the its completion.70 (see Pearl Bank Apartments) the Burmese community, and Lucky Plaza for be used to refer to the ownership structure or the
association is made. In contrast, many state-owned modernist the Filipino community.(see Lucky Plaza) While these urban development model of a building, such as
As cultural anthropologist Igor Kopytoff buildings are still in use or have been adapted building’s users, including owners, tenants and the strata-titled property and the condominium.
(see Pandan Valley)
noted in his seminal essay “The Cultural for new uses. One reason is they are overseen visitors might have changed, their function
Biography of Things”, every artefact moves in by state agencies, such as the HDB, the SLA have remained largely the same—as mixed- In all, the book has 32 illustrated essays
and out of the two polarities of commoditisation (Singapore Land Authority), and the Town use complexes with shops in the podium. In covering a broad spectrum of buildings and types
and singularisation. But some are precluded Councils, which are known for their rigorous other modernist buildings, both the function that cut across Singapore’s colonial and post-
from commoditisation, that is “partak[ing] maintenance regimes of properties under their and users have changed dramatically even if independence periods. The bulk of it focuses on
in a single universe of comparable values” charge.71 HDB in particular is committed to the structures remained mostly unaltered. For buildings and landscapes planned and built
that homogenises value and facilitates the repair and maintenance of public housing instance, a flatted factory has been turned into during the era of rapid socio-economic moderni-
exchange, by being marked as uncommon and from the outset so as to make high-rise, high- a furniture showroom in Tan Boon Liat Building sation and nation-building in the 1960s and
(see Tan Boon Liat Building)
incomparable, that is singularised and thus density living acceptable to the Singaporean and a cinema converted to a 1970s, but we also extend into the earlier period
without equivalence in value.67 Kopytoff argued population.72 Over the decades, it has retrofitted church in The Metropole. (see Cinema-Churches) In this of colonial modernity between the 1930s and
that such a designation or classification of an and improved most of its older public housing in book, the different types of building biographies 1950s, as well as the era of late capitalism in the
artefact is based on a cultural response. While what are known as “upgrading programmes” that are not just documented in words. They are 1980s. The expanded timeframe allows us to
uncommon, it is not inevitable that an ageing are subsidised by the state.73 As a result, many also recorded in images—both archival images better understand the dramatic modernisation of
building with declining real estate value must HDB flats have not encountered similar issues of and new photographs by Darren. The book is Singapore in the 1960s and 1970s from a longer
slip into obsolescence and be demolished or physical decay and social stigmatisation despite therefore both a textual and visual biographical historical perspective and in relation to earlier
redeveloped. That building could potentially their identical typology and construction with record of everyday modernism in Singapore. precedents. In so doing, the essays end up
76 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 77 The Singapore Vernacular

discussing a wider range of modernist aesthetics My Community have also contributed to saving 7 Many of these architects have written about their Report 1968–69 (Singapore: JTC, 1969); Jurong
beyond modernism and brutalism to include art modernist buildings from the wrecking ball.80 design considerations and processes behind Town Corporation Annual Report 1970 (Singapore:
these buildings, making their design authorship JTC, 1971).
deco and postmodernism. They also widen the Active in Queenstown since 2010, the group’s
explicit. See, for example, Alfred Hong Kwok 17 Words of Goh Keng Swee, minister for finance and
scope to a larger network of architects, firms and advocacy for Singapore’s oldest new town has Wong, Recollections of Life in an Accidental Nation the “economic architect” of Singapore, cited in
agencies that were vital to city-state’s modernism, contributed to the conservation of two modernist (Singapore: Select Books, 2016); Robert Powell Jurong Town Corporation Annual Report 1968–69,
yet largely remain unknown. We seek to uncover buildings in the town centre that is undergoing and Tay Kheng Soon, Line, Edge & Shade: The 1.
both the pioneering examples and the exemplary redevelopment, the creation of a heritage plan Search for a Design Language in Tropical Asia 18 Miles Glendinning, Mass Housing: Modern
precursors—many of which are forgotten—and to for the town, and even the setting up of an (Singapore: Page One Pub., 1997); Lim Chong Architecture and State Power – a Global History
Keat, “The International Context for Southeast (London: Bloomsbury Visual Arts, 2021), 503.
connect them to today’s ubiquitous architectural independent community museum.81
Asian Architecture,” in Architecture and Identity: 19 For the congested shophouses, see Barrington
and planning concepts and typologies. We also We hope Everyday Modernism offers a useful Proceedings of the Regional Seminar, ed. Kaye, Upper Nankin Street, Singapore: A
try to link to similar buildings and ideas both reference for this growing conversation. It can Robert Powell (Singapore: Aga Khan Award for Sociological Study of Chinese Households Living
locally and internationally as modernism was very also serve as a resource for understanding how Architecture, Concept Media, 1983). in a Densely Populated Area (Singapore: University
much a global project too. Singapore’s reputation as a modern global city 8 Alfred Wong, Tay Kheng Soon, Lim Chong Keat and of Malaya Press, 1960).For the urban kampongs,
William Lim were awarded the Singapore Institute see Loh Kah Seng, Squatters into Citizens: The
Our broad scope and multiple authorship have today was built upon the progressive ideals and
of Architects’ Gold Medal in 1998, 2010, 2015 and 1961 Bukit Ho Swee Fire and the Making of Modern
inevitably resulted in a slightly heterogenous ideas of those who came before. Most important- 2017 respectively. Tan Cheng Siong received the Singapore (Singapore: NUS Press, 2013).
focus and tone. While the essays primarily focus ly, we hope it would stimulate further interest and President’s Design Award Designer of the Year in 20 Loh, Squatters into Citizens.
on building biographies and the social aspects research into modernism in the city-state and 2012 from the DesignSingapore Council. 21 J. M. Fraser, The Work of the Singapore
of architecture, we also strive to engage in make the modern environment we live in a larger 9 Alfred H. K. Wong, “A Brief Review of Our Recent Improvement Trust 1953 (Singapore: Singapore
formal and spatial descriptions of buildings, part of our everyday conversations. Architectural History,” in Contemporary Singapore Improvement Trust, 1953), 45.
Architecture, ed. Singapore Institute of Architects 22 Housing and Development Board Annual Report
unavoidably entailing the use of some specialist
(Singapore: Singapore Institute of Architects, 1960 (Singapore: Housing & Development
language. Nonetheless, this book is not intended Notes
1998), 252. Board, 1961), 34. In fact, Queenstown was earlier
to be the comprehensive history of modernism 1 Dell Upton, “Architecture in Everyday Life,” New
10 This use of “heroic” draws from a book on the planned to house only a population of 50,000.
Literary History 33, no. 4 (2002): 708.
in Singapore. In fact, we intentionally leave out iconic brutalist structures in Boston. See Mark See Singapore Improvement Trust, Queenstown,
2 Bernard Rudofsky, Architecture without Architects:
several well-known examples that have been Pasnik, Michael Kubo, and Chris Grimley, eds., Singapore: Final Report of the New Towns Working
A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture
Heroic: Concrete Architecture and the New Boston Party on the Plan for Queenstown (Singapore:
extensively documented elsewhere—most (New York: Doubleday, 1964); Nikolaus Pevsner, An
(New York: The Monacelli Press, 2015). New Towns Working Party, 1958), 10; Introducing
notably the Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Outline of European Architecture (London: Penguin
11 Prominent examples include Liu Thai Ker, Ng Queenstown (Singapore: Singapore Improvement
Union House, National Stadium and National Books, 1972).
Kheng Lau, Yip Yuen Hong and Yap Mong Lin. Trust, 1958), n.p.
3 Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven
Theatre—to make room for lesser-known ones. 12 For the architecture of late-colonial social 23 Singapore Improvement Trust, Queenstown,
Izenour, Learning from Las Vegas (Cambridge, MA:
Our book is certainly not the first nor will it be the welfare programmes, see Dale Cuthbertson, Singapore, 9.
MIT Press, 1972).
last on architectural modernism in Singapore. “The Singapore Education Plan,” The Quarterly 24 Housing & Development Board Annual Report 1967
4 Margaret Crawford, “Introduction,” in Everyday
Journal of the Institute of Architects of Malaya 1, (Singapore: Housing & Development Board, 1967).
The rapid loss of such built heritage in Singapore Urbanism, ed. John Chase, Margaret Crawford,
no. 3 (1951): 31–48; K. A. Brundle, “The Singapore 25 In 1920, the Public Works Department, Straits
in recent years has sparked action to protect and John Kaliski (New York: Monacelli Press,
Medical Plan,” The Quarterly Journal of the Institute Settlements, was established. Prior to that,
it. Civil society groups such as the Singapore 1999); Nihal Perera, People’s Spaces: Coping,
of Architects of Malaya 2, no. 2 (1952): 29–47; it was known as the Public Works and Survey
Familiarising, Creating (New York: Routledge,
Heritage Society and Docomomo (Documentation Stanley Woolmer, “The Work of the Singapore Department (1873–1919) and Public Works and
2016). The theorising of the everyday by Lefebvre
and Conservation of the Modern Movement) Improvement Trust,” The Quarterly Journal of the Convict Departments (up to 1872). See Wong Yunn
and de Certeau is not without problem as they tend
Singapore have mobilised to document these Institute of Architects of Malaya 3, no. 2 (1953): Chii, “Public Works Department Singapore in the
to embrace the ordinary and the banal only to see
47–68. Inter-War Years (1919–1941): From Monumental
buildings and advocate for their conservation.76 it as necessitating an aesthetic transfiguration in
13 Ole Johan Dale, Urban Planning in Singapore: to Instrumental Modernism” (unpublished
These groups and individuals have put out order to redeem it. See Rita Felski, “Introduction,”
The Transformation of a City (Shah Alam: Oxford research report, Singapore, National University
New Literary History 33, no. 4 (2002): 607–22.
publications and organised events, including University Press, 1999). of Singapore, 2003), 29. The PWD was a British
5 See, for example, Ho Weng Hin, Dinesh Naidu, and
forums, conferences and exhibitions to raise 14 Rodolphe De Koninck, Marc Girard, and Thanh colonial institution found throughout the British
Tan Kar Lin, Our Modern Past: A Visual Survey of
public awareness and as attempts to further Hai Pham, Singapore’s Permanent Territorial Empire. See Peter Scriver, “Empire-Building and
Singapore Architecture, 1920s–1970s (Singapore:
Revolution: 50 Years in 50 Maps (Singapore: NUS Thinking in the Public Works Department of British
endow these modernist buildings with social Singapore Heritage Society and SIA Press, 2015);
Press, 2017). India,” in Colonial Modernities: Building, Dwelling
meanings and significance.77 In recent years, Wong Yunn Chii, Singapore 1:1 City: A Gallery
15 Manuel Castells, L. Goh, and R. Yin-Wang and Architecture in British India and Ceylon, ed.
the state has begun conserving such buildings, of Architecture and Urban Design (Singapore:
Kwok, The Shek Kip Mei Syndrome: Economic Peter Scriver and Vikramaditya Prakash (New York:
Urban Redevelopment Authority, 2007); Lai Chee
most notably the Singapore Conference Hall and Development and Public Housing in Hong Kong Routledge, 2007), 69–92; Ibiyemi Omotayo Salami,
Kien, Koh Hong Teng, and Yeo Chuan, Building
Trade Union House, Jurong Town Hall and the and Singapore (London: Pion, 1990); Garry “The Architecture of the Public Works Department
Memories: People, Architecture, Independence
former Subordinate Courts.78 In October 2021, Rodan, The Political Economy of Singapore’s (PWD) in Nigeria During the Early to Mid Twentieth
(Singapore: Achates 360, 2016).
Industrialization: National State and International Century” (PhD thesis, Liverpool, The University of
the Golden Mile Complex was also gazetted for 6 This characterisation of the traditional architectural
Capital. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1989). Liverpool, 2016).
conservation, setting an important precedent historiography is made in C. Greig Crysler, Writing
16 Tang Hsiao Ling, “Industrial Planning in Singapore,” 26 Jiat-Hwee Chang and William S. W. Lim, “Non
Spaces: Discourses of Architecture, Urbanism,
for other privately owned heroic modernist in 50 Years of Urban Planning in Singapore, ed. West Modernist Past: Rethinking Modernisms
and the Built Environment, 1960–2000 (New York:
buildings.79 Works by heritage groups such as Heng Chye Kiang (Singapore: World Scientific, and Modernities beyond the West,” in Non West
Routledge, 2003), 37.
2017), 153–76; Jurong Town Corporation Annual Modernist Past: On Architecture and Modernities,
78 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 79 The Singapore Vernacular

ed. William S. W. Lim and Jiat-Hwee Chang also Dale, Urban Planning in Singapore, 122–25; 57 Julka Almquist and Julia Lupton, “Affording Singapore,” in The New Blackwell Companion to
(Singapore: World Scientific, 2011), 7–24. Rem Koolhaas, “Singapore Songlines: Portrait of Meaning: Design-Oriented Research from the the City, ed. Gary Bridge and Sophie Watson (New
27 For a wide-ranging discussion of how the a Potemkin Metropolis … or Thirty Years of Tabula Humanities and Social Sciences,” Design Issues 26, York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 79–95.
modernist built environment was different from Rasa,” in S, M, L, XL, ed. OMA, Rem Koolhaas, and no. 1 (2010): 5–6,. 73 Robbie B. H. Goh, “Ideologies of ‘Upgrading’ in
its traditional counterpart, see James Holston, Bruce Mau (Rotterdam: 010 Publishers, 1995), 58 Cupers, “Introduction,” 2. Singapore Public Housing: Postmodern Style,
The Modernist City: An Anthropological Critique 1008–86. 59 Stewart Brand, How Buildings Learn: What Globalization, and Class Construction in the Built
of Brasilia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 45 The URD was only formed in 1966 but by Happens after They’re Built (New York: Viking, Environment,” Urban Studies 38, no. 9 (2001).
1989), chaps. 4 and 5. 1974, its work would be so significant that it 1994), 2. 74 Mike Ives, “Too Ugly to Be Saved? Singapore
28 Choe, Alan Fook Cheong, interview by Soh Eng become a separate statutory board, the Urban 60 Hannah le Roux, “Lived Modernism: When Weighs Fate of Its Brutalist Buildings,” The New
Khim, 1 August 1997, accession no. 001891 disc 6 Redevelopment Authority (URA). Dale, Urban Architecture Transforms” (PhD thesis, Leuven, York Times, 27 January 2019.
of 18, National Archives of Singapore. Planning in Singapore, 126–27. Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 2014). 75 Adrian Forty, Words and Buildings: A Vocabulary of
29 Chua Beng Huat, Designed for Living: Public 46 Kah-Wee Lee, “Regulating Design in Singapore: 61 Chua Beng Huat, Political Legitimacy and Housing: Modern Architecture (New York: Thames & Hudson,
Housing Architecture in Singapore (Singapore: A Survey of the Government Land Sales (GLS) Singapore’s Stakeholder Society (London: 2000), 304–11.
Housing & Development Board, 1985), 96. Programme,” Environment and Planning C: Routledge, 1997), 82–84. 76 Singapore Heritage Society organised a series
30 Housing & Development Board Annual Report Government and Policy 28 (2010): 145–64. 62 Jane M. Jacobs and Stephen Cairns, “The Modern of events under “En Bloc, or Buildings Must
1973/74 (Singapore: Housing & Development 47 A Pictorial Chronology of the Sale of Sites Touch: Interior Design and Modernisation in Die” to discuss the challenges of conserving
Board, 1974), 51–57. Programme for Private Development (Singapore: Post-Independence Singapore,” Environment and modernist built environment. See Amanda
31 Aline K. Wong and Stephen H. K. Yeh, eds., Urban Redevelopment Authority, 1983). Planning A 40 (2008): 572–95; Chua, Political Chai, “The Substation’s next Exhibition Explores
Housing a Nation: 25 Years of Public Housing in 48 Castells, Goh, and Kwok, The Shek Kip Mei Legitimacy and Housing, Chap. 5. the Weird Tug-of-War behind Conservation
Singapore (Singapore: Maruzen Asia for Housing & Syndrome, 267–69. It has been argued that this 63 Neil Harris, Building Lives: Constructing Rites and in Singapore,” SG Magazine, 20 August 2018,
Development Board, 1985), 95. constituted Singapore’s mode of land reform and Passages (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999); https://sgmagazine.com/arts-things-to-do/news/
32 Castells, Goh, and Kwok, The Shek Kip Mei redistribution. See Chua Beng Huat, “Singapore as Donald McNeill and Kim McNamara, “The Life substations-next-exhibition-explores-weird-tug-
Syndrome, 187. Model: Planning Innovations, Knowledge Experts,” and Death of Great Hotels: A Building Biography war-behind-conserving. Docomomo Singapore,
33 Dale, Urban Planning in Singapore, 35. in Worlding Cities, ed. Aihwa Ong and Ananya Roy of Sydney’s ‘The Australia’,” Transactions of the led by Ho Weng Hin and his heritage conservation
34 Castells, Goh, and Kwok, The Shek Kip Mei (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 27–54; Anne Institute of British Geographers 37, no. 1 (2012): consultancy firm Studio Lapis, organised a two-day
Syndrome, 237. Haila, Urban Land Rent: Singapore as a Property 149–63. conference “Progressive Once More,” 31 October–1
35 Dale, Urban Planning in Singapore, 126. State (Walden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2015). 64 See, for example, Daniel M. Abramson, November 2019 to advocate for creative ways to
36 Colony of Singapore Master Plan: Written 49 See, for example, Glendinning, Mass Housing, Obsolescence: An Architectural History (Chicago: adaptively reuse modernist buildings in Singapore.
Statement (Singapore: Authority of the Colony of chap. 16; W. G. Huff, “The Developmental University of Chicago Press, 2016), Chap. 1. See 林方伟, “激活亚细安世纪中期现代建筑：叫去留不
Singapore, 1958). State, Government, and Singapore’s Economic 65 Stephen Graham and Nigel Thrift, “Out of Order: 那么沉重,” 联合早报, 24 November 2109. Disclosure:
37 Erik Emil Lorange, “Final Report on Central Development since 1960,” World Development 23, Understanding Repair and Maintenance,” Theory, Jiat-Hwee Chang, Justin Zhuang and Darren Soh
Redevelopment of Singapore City,” 1962, 20, no. 8 (1995): 1421–38. Culture & Society 24, no. 3 (2007): 1–25. are founding members of Docomomo Singapore.
Unversity of Liverpool Library, William Holford 50 James C. Scott, Seeing like a State: How Certain 66 Jeremy Till, Architecture Depends (Cambridge, MA: Chang also sits on its executive committee.
papers, D147/V13. Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have MIT Press, 2009), 70–71. 77 See also Darren Soh’s photographic exhibition
38 Lorange, 20. Failed (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998). 67 Igor Kopytoff, “The Cultural Biography of Things: “Before it all goes” held at the Chapel Gallery,
39 Charles Abrams, Susumu Kobe, and Otto H. 51 The idea of Singapore’s urbanisation was based on Commoditization as Process,” in The Social Life Objectifs, 23 August–30 September 2018.
Koenigsberger, “Growth and Urban Renewal in the tabula rasa mode was popularised by Koolhaas, of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective, 78 John Lui, “S’pore Conference Hall a National
Singapore: Report Prepared for the Government of “Singapore Songlines”. ed. Arjun Appadurai (Cambridge: Cambridge Monument,” The Straits Times, 5 January 2011;
Singapore” (New York: United Nations Programme 52 A well-known illustration of this is the case University Press, 1986), 69. Chew Hui Min, “Jurong Town Hall ‘a Baby’ among
of Technical Assistance, Department of Economic of the Pruitt-Igoe public housing project. Its 68 Steven J. Jackson, “Rethinking Repair,” in Media National Monuments,” The Straits Times, 3 June
and Social Affairs, 1963), 6. demolition has been attributed to the failure Technologies: Essays on Communication, 2015.
40 Abrams, Kobe, and Koenigsberger, 57–58. of modern architecture when in fact it was not Materiality, and Society, ed. Tarleton Gillespie, 79 Ng Keng Gene, “Conservation of Golden Mile
41 Ibid, 63. architectural design but the embedded social and Pablo J. Boczkowski, and Kirsten A. Foot Complex Paves Way to Protect S’pore’s Modernist
42 Dale, Urban Planning in Singapore, 132–33. The political problems of the project that led to its (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014), 221–40. Buildings,” The Straits Times, 26 October 2021.
idea of using a Concept Plan to guide long term deterioration. See Katharine G. Bristol, “The Pruitt- 69 “‘Eyesore’ at Beach Rd: No Relief in Sight,” The 80 See http://www.mycommunity.org.sg
development continues to be practised today. A Igoe Myth,” Journal of Architectural Education 44, Straits Times, 7 March 2006. 81 Melody Zaccheus, “Three Queenstown Buildings to
new Concept Plan has been issued once every ten no. 3 (1991): 163–71. 70 Interestingly, the real estate group CapitaLand that Be Conserved after Lobbying by Civic Group,” The
years since 1971. 53 “HDB Chairman Receives UN Award for Tampines,” bought Pearl Bank Apartments in the collective Straits Times, 3 October 2013; Melody Zaccheus,
43 A 1969 progress report of the work of the State The Straits Times, 6 October 1992. sale for redevelopment has the Singapore “Queenstown Rolls out Heritage Plan,” The Straits
and City Planning noted that “K.A.K. [Koenigsberg- 54 Grace Lees-Maffei, “The Production— government sovereign wealth fund Temasek Times, 14 August 2014; Melody Zaccheus, “Stroll
er, Abrams, Kobe] ‘Ring’ Plan is not at all satisfacto- Consumption—Mediation Paradigm,” Journal of Holdings as its majority shareholder. Stephanie through Queenstown’s Past – and Celebrate Its
ry” thus leading to its rather substantial modifica- Design History 22, no. 4 (2009): 355–59. Luo, “Pearl Bank Apartments in Outram Sold En History,” The Straits Times, 23 February 2019.
tion. See State and City Planning, “Notes on the 55 See Kenny Cupers, “Introduction,” in Use Matters: Bloc to CapitaLand for S$728m,” The Straits Times,
United Nations Assistance in Urban Renewal and An Alternative History of Architecture, ed. Kenny 13 February 2018.
Development Project, Singapore,” January 1969, Cupers (New York: Routledge, 2013), 1–12. 71 SLA is known for its asset enhancement
40, Renate Koenigsberger’s Collection, London. 56 Jennifer Kaufmann-Buhler, “Diversionary Tactics at programme. See, for example, Singapore Land
44 The UN team added that “[i]t has acknowledged Work: Making Meaning through Misuse,” in Design Authority, Land, Our Canvas: Singapore Land
the wisdom of Patric [sic] Geddes’ advice to Asian History Beyond the Canon, ed. Jennifer Kaufmann- Authority Annual Report 2017/18 (Singapore: SLA,
cities that ‘conservative surgery is better than Buhler, Victoria Rose Pass, and Christopher S. 2018).
amputation’.” Abrams, Kobe, and Koenigsberger, Wilson (London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2019), 72 Jane M. Jacobs and Stephen Cairns, “Ecologies
“Growth and Urban Renewal in Singapore,” 18. See 35–48. of Dwelling: Maintaining High-Rise Housing in
80 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 81 The Singapore Vernacular

0.01 Singapore in 1963, showing the 0.04 The masterplan for Queenstown,
clear divide between the rural the first satellite town in Singapore,
0.01
(white) and urban (black) areas that as envisioned by the SIT in 1958. It
arose out of decades of growth and was eventually realised by the HDB
accepted as is by the 1955 colonial who increased its density
masterplan. significantly.

0.02 The 1963 “Ring City Singapore” 0.05 The diagrammatic plan of Toa Payoh
sketch plan by UN experts offered a New Town by HDB shows how it was
more radical approach to urban connected by a circular road system
development. It treated the whole and organised around a town
island as a single integrated urban centre, town garden and sports
entity and planned a ring of coastal complex.
towns around a central open space.

0.03 The UN plan was the basis of the

State and City Planning team’s First
Concept Plan drawn up in 1971. The 0.04
ring of satellite towns became
smaller and were further away from
the coasts. It also intersected with
an east-west corridor.
0.02

0.03
0.05
82 Introduction Everyday Modernism: 83 The Singapore Vernacular

0.06 Aerial view of Toa Payoh New Town 0.06 0.10 The reclaimed land at Telok Ayer 0.11
under construction in 1972. Basin with the newly completed
podium tower blocks along Shenton
0.07 Masterplan of Singapore’s main Way in the background. The urban
industrial estate, Jurong Town, by renewal in the city centre was made
JTC. Besides factories, it also had a possible by the resettlement of the
residential component known as urban population in the newly
Taman Jurong, as indicated on the completed public housing, much of
top right. which was in satellite towns like
Queenstown and Toa Payoh.
0.08 The residential area of Taman Jurong
was supported with various social 0.11 The void decks of HDB flats
and recreational amenities as seen in accommodated different uses,
this 1978 aerial view. On the right is including as a bird-singing corner,
0.12
the Jurong Drive-In Cinema. where songbirds chirped while their
owners socialised.
0.09 Besides building and designing
infrastructure such as roads, the PWD 0.12 The void decks were also used to host
was also behind many government Malay wedding receptions.
buildings, ranging from schools to
modern offices such as the CPF 0.13 HDB flats were sold with basic fixtures
Building. and finishes so that residents could
adjust the layouts and renovate the
spaces to suit their needs.

0.09

0.07 0.08 0.10 0.13