June 30, 2008 | Event | Reports
Thinking About Cities
From 11th June to 15th June 2008, a party of people was brought together by their common interest in urbanism in Southeast Asia to a workshop called Thinking About Cities, set partly in Singapore.
Organized by MIT (Asian Cities Cluster) in collaboration with the Department of Architecture, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore and 5ft Creatives and funded by MIT, the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, this program saw diverse groups of people from disciplines across Architecture, Economics, Geography and even Literature come together to study urban plans and housing solutions in land-scarce Singapore.
The programme line-up was crafted in order to give all participants an understanding of the housing and planning issues that Singapore is facing from a variety of perspectives- the planning authorities, the architects and designers, the academics and perhaps most importantly, the people who reside in these public housing.
The workshop had its participants going around Singapore visiting places for talks and doing general sight and site seeing. For the locals, this entailed them finding themselves playing, at turns, tourists and tour guides.
A visit to the URA was first on the itinerary to give a macro overview of the issue. A quick overview of the policies, goals and also a history of Singapore’s urban morphology introduced all participants to the complexities of Singapore’s public housing issues. Visits to design firms such as Surbana, WOHA Architects and ARC Studio, all of whom very much involved in designing high-rise, high-density public housing projects, were also organised to understand the challenges and design considerations faced by the designers. Walks around the various public housing estates were also organised; Tiong Bahru-to show the first generation public housing project, Toa Payoh-to show the various types of public housing projects there and also to Sengkang- a public housing estate developed over the last few years.
To many of the Singaporean participants, attending the workshop in their home country presented a refreshing learning experience. Many felt that it was an exercise in seeing familiar things in new and intent ways. As Toon recalls, “It was exposure to the same things that I have always known all my life but now seen from a different angle.�
Toon, who enjoyed playing host to the participants from abroad, found her fellow workshop friends “easy to chat and banter with.�She also felt that a “lack of a hierarchy� between teachers and students “made the casual banter and learning more enjoyable and engaging.�
Most interesting for her was the “mix of people� that attended the workshop. It was this diverse group comprising of people from different disciplines (of economics, urban studies, architecture etc) and their unique questions and concerns that made the workshop extraordinary. She says, “I guess what architecture needs, is to have more engagements on these kind of levels, where the basic facts are still the same but it is the angle which differs.�
Hearing expert perspectives was also a major factor contributing to the enrichments of the workshop. Heather, a Geography student who went on the tour of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Singapore’s land use planning authority, says “Getting a glimpse of the URA from the inside was nothing short of illuminating.
Conservationist Kevin Ang provided fascinating insights into the history of urban planning in Singapore, the way planning is currently coordinated and articulated, as well as the controversies that inevitably arise when heritage and natural conservation conflict with the need to constantly redevelop and reinvent.�
Also seeking redevelopment and reinvention is Adib of 5ft Creatives, one of the organizing members of the event.
To him, the three day workshop was not so much about learning as it was about unlearning what he thought he knew about local housing and urban planning, and looking at them from a critical point of view with the help of friends from abroad.
He explains, “Much like how we miss home only when we are away from it, reflections and opinions from these new-found friends made me further appreciate the complexities of Singapore’s context.
The MIT party looked at Singapore with their American-educated lenses and their opinions about Singapore opened the path for me to look at Singapore’s housing model with fresher perspectives. With mind liberated, I can now seek to relearn the concepts of good housing in the city.â€?
Summing up his experience of the workshop, Adib quoted writer and futurist Alvin Toffler who said that “The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.�
Lessons were also appreciated by Felicia of 5ft Creatives who coordinated the different groups of participants, planned the itinerary and who generally ensured that everything was in order.
She describes the workshop as “enriching� but felt that when it came to visiting the housing estates, “it might be more beneficial for the (MIT) students if they could freely explore the places, instead of being dictated on how to explore them.�
For the Singaporean participants, most of whom stay in public housing flats, the visits to the housing estates prompted more personal reflections.
Audrey, an Architecture graduate who toured the newly built Sengkang public housing estate with the group, went away examining the designer’s role in planning public housing:
“Are the buyers really looking at the aesthetic outlook as we all think they do? Or are they more concerned about the environment, the place, the unit, society? Living in a public housing myself, I’m more inclined to the latter. No matter how ‘nice’ my flat looks from the outside, it is still more important to me that my neighbors are friendly, that my unit has more space, that the estate has pockets or gathering space. Maybe it is time that we thought about what it is to live in a public housing development, and not simply pick on its color and aesthetics. Maybe if all designers thought this way, we would not end up with weird corners in our homes or alienated corridor spaces.�
The estate tours also prompted artistic responses. For example, Wenjun, an Architect student was moved by the Toa Payoh Estate tour to do a drawing of it, with an accompanying poem “Reflecting on a new town near & far�: (click to enlarge)
Familiar childhood sights and secret spaces.
Intermingling with that damn high tech stuff
A merchant prays at the local deity shrine.
Before selling vcds below that jumbo lcd screen
The hustle and bustle of residents
The old folks are at the chess game again
See the crowns of new kings 40 storeys high
Like bidding, come forward and bow.
Walking between the wooden louvred streets
Is like a walk home. A modern vernacular.
Feel the brick beneath. The louvres end.
Pauses. Are important. One pauses.
Hear the world move around you. Moves you.
The new blockbuster beckons. But i walk on.
See the old and the new. Like baggage?
A life’s inheritance. Memories turn material.
Today i walk. With trepidation.- A Remembrance of Things Past….
The same tour also led to Debbie, in fact the leader of the Toa Payoh Estatetour, writing a poem called “Unplanned Lives�, in three parts set in different places within the estate:
I Town Square
On the weekends, they are there. The children – library book
drops turn into a game of tag – a tag, a beep.
R E T U R N E D ,
into a new cycle of ownership.In the afternoons, they are there. The ones in checkered shorts - staring at
checkered boards - make a jump, in draughts.
C O N Q U E R E D ,
Hah! This bird-cage is mine.
II Kopitiam
Before I remember the ones I must forget again, let me learn
to love the trees around me. Would I know when again
I will sit
here to contemplate life and bus concessions
for the a-peks like me?
My wife is gone
now and I walk less
now, because she led the way.
III Playground
Well, I did not tell my mother that
I kissed S here.
Shsssh… shameful stupid girl, she would say.
Here, right under this colourful structure.
The one that’s right under
your nose if you only looked out
over the corridor. Just for once, from our 32nd floor – no, you will not fall.
No, you are not that dizzy. Will you please
get used to this already.I kissed S here.
We hid in the one that looked like a house.
It was a Ronald McDonald house, with a plastic
red roof, yellow columns,
white windows (it probably came with a Happy Meal).Well, of course you did not see
us, also fumbling
in our uniforms, the blouse you painstakingly pressed.
Creased… with need. Haha – what would you say?
For more reviews and recollections of the workshop, please visit the MIT students’ blog where they kept a daily record of the program.
June 30, 2008 | Reviews | books
The Edifice Complex: How the Rich and Powerful Shape the World
The Edifice Complex
Deyan Sudjic
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (November 28, 2006)
ISBN-10: 014303801X
ISBN-13: 978-0143038016
Hardcover: 405 pages
Deyan Sudjic’s latest offering is a witty, sometimes lighthearted look at some really very real issues pertaining to the world of architecture and its promiscuous relationship with power.
The book looks towards architecture and the role it plays within dominions of power and leadership, and how it is being wielded on today’s global construction sites, where iconic just so happens to be the overused word of the day; a phenomenon undeniably launched by the advent of Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim museum in Bilbao. The building holds an interesting place in this discourse: Once touted as the single reason for post-industrial Bilbao’s successful urban regeneration, it has now become the subject of scrutiny as the culprit for the now famous/infamous Bilbao Effect. Referencing age old examples like Francois Mitterand’s Grand Projets in Paris, or Adolf Hitler and Albert Speer’s Germany, to more recent instances of architects’ brushes with the powers that be, that include the activities of the offices of Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid, Sudjic makes exceptionally clear his thesis that architecture has and continues to be utilized as an instrument for the raw expression of power.
Architectural space, language and tectonics – are explored in detail, with Sudjic in one instance describing Speer’s design of the German Chancellery and its very physical and political role in the war; and in one riveting and revealing chapter, charts the gradual physical-political crumbling of then-Czech president Emil Hácha as he traversed through the endless catacombs of what was really a superfluous display of Adolf Hitler’s power. Needless to say, Stalin and Mao and their respective pet projects are given equal attention in what emerges to be a study of the (very architectural) devices of power.
Far from being one-sided, Sudjic draws attention to an equal and complimentary attitude of architects; that of the undying hunger and thirst to build, and the unimaginable lengths to which architects would go to just to realize a project. Philip Johnson, and even Mies gain honorable mention, as Sudjic digs up the latter’s lesser known past of having flirted with building for Hitler’s Third Reich, showing that even the Modernist master himself could not resist the idea of building for the progressive elite, in hope of even further commissions of a similar nature.
Through explicit descriptions of spaces and environments, and voyeuristic demonstrations of the manipulation and games that go on behind the doors of the rich and powerful, Sudjic also sheds light on architecture’s rat pack of the day – Koolhaas, Gehry, Hadid, Foster – among others, and brings to mind the world’s current fascination with the icon, and its inexorable relationship to - the very real, and sometimes ugly - human instinct to wield and display the extent of one’s power. Architecture, as Sudjic argues, must be understood primarily not as art, but as an expression of power over a landscape that will last far longer than we do – a unique instrument of statecraft.
Price TBA
Available at Basheer Graphicbooks
#04-19 Bras Basah Complex
Block 231 Bain Street
Singapore 180231
www.basheergraphic.com
Email: enquiry@basheergraphic.com
June 25, 2008 | Broadcast | News
Singapore’s 4th University will take an interdisciplinary approach to teaching
via StraitsTimes.com - The fourth publicly-funded university will take in as many as 2,500 students a year and offer three main disciplines: engineering, design and business.
It will take an interdisciplinary approach to teaching, for instance, combining engineering and design or engineering and business so that graduates will go beyond having core knowledge in just one discipline.
At the university which may be located in the north, east or northeastern part of Singapore, undergraduates will also do research aimed at solving problems faced by the industry and have the chance to do extended internships.
More at the StraitsTimes.com
June 24, 2008 | Broadcast | News
Herzog & de Meuron to design new museum of modern art in Calcutta
THE ART NEWSPAPER - Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron are at it again, with their proven brand of sensitive but effective museum-architecture that includes the Tate Modern in London and the de Young Museum in San Francisco, have been selected to design an ambitious new museum of modern art in Calcutta (Kolkata) scheduled to open in 2013. They were chosen from a shortlist which included Frank Gehry (US) and David Adjaye (UK).
June 21, 2008 | Broadcast | Event | Events | Reports
Architectural Association Visiting Programmes: Asia 2008
The Architectural Association is organising a number of Visiting Schools in Asia this 2008 season.
June 15, 2008 | Broadcast | News
Architects! Use language that playfully enhances the flow of design intentions between you and your client.
Suppose the noun “architecture� could be banned from daily use starting now and “playing� took its place. As preposterous as this hypothetical might seem, try to “go with the flow� for a moment. And “going with the flow� is why I’m asking you to temporarily abandon the fixity of the word “architecture� and consider a word evoking dynamic process rather than static object.
More from Norman Weinstein at ArchNewsNow
June 14, 2008 | Broadcast | News
Inside India, the gap widens
Its the classic story of the widening gap between the rich and poor, this time in the booming economy of India. Well, booming for some, but as the New York Times’ Somini Sengupta puts it, very much squalid for many others. With two parallel universes literally existing side by side, she uncovers a unique, ironic and sad phenomenon that is being perpetuated in cities like Gurgaon, India.
June 14, 2008 | Broadcast | News
In Singapore, a House Steeped in Tradition
“It is really a quintessential Singapore experience to live in one of those grand old houses surrounded by nature,� Mrs. Pickering said. “You can live in a condominium anywhere, but these houses are really unique.�
June 10, 2008 | Broadcast | News
HDB wins UN Public Service Award for home ownership programme
Singapore’s public housing agency - Housing and Development Board (HDB) - has been given the United Nations Public Service Award.
HDB said the award is in recognition of the Home Ownership Programme, which has successfully provided over 80 per cent of Singaporeans with affordable quality flats, of them 95 per cent own these homes.
Describing it as a significant milestone in its history, HDB said the award represents the international community’s recognition of Singapore’s public housing programme. - CNA
June 4, 2008 | Broadcast | News
Singapore Poly students submit ideas to remake Punggol Town
There seems to be no stopping the recent wave of continued development of Punggol Town. With the recent announcement of the Punggol Landscape Masterplan competition, now Singapore Poly students have been called upon to submit ideas for Punggol Town.
The students’ suggestions fall under HDB’s ‘Call for Ideas’ competition which aims to incorporate the wishes of Punggol residents. As Punggol is dubbed the ‘Waterfront Town of the 21st century’, expectations for the developments are high. And so far, the HDB has been encouraged by what it has heard.
Full Article- CNA
June 2, 2008 | Broadcast | News
World Architecture Festival
The World Architecture Festival (WAF) will celebrate the work, concerns and aspirations of the international architectural community, during a three-day event taking place in Barcelona, Spain from 22 to 24 October 2008.
The Festival will be an annual opportunity to compare and contrast the extraordinary range of designs created by a profession which has always looked beyond national borders to the wider world of architectural culture.
At the heart of the festival is the largest architectural awards programme in the world. The Awards will showcase, compare and contrast an outstanding range of completed buildings created by a profession which has always looked beyond national borders to the wider world of architectural culture.
Headed by Lord (Norman) Foster, the international judging panels will comprise architects, allied professionals, clients and critics, including a “super-jury�, who will decide the ‘best in show’ prize – the first architectural ‘Prix de Barcelona’ .
Entries will be accepted from April 2008, with a closing date at the end of June. Shortlisting will be carried out by an international jury during July 2008. At this stage, 16 buildings will be shortlisted in each of the competition’s 16 categories (ie, 256 buildings in total). All shortlisted architects will then present their work live to juries and audiences at the Festival, competing against each other to become category winners.
All entries will be exhibited at the Festival in a huge gallery modelled on the Barcelona grid, and after the Festival all entries will be permanently available on-line, on the WAF website.
Related Information
Official World Architecture Festival Website
