Five Foot Way
An exploration of Asian architectureHarry Potter crap
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Magical Spaces
A Response to something in the News:
The Straits Times, Friday May 11 2007 / Page 33 / INSIGHT / The Post-65ers
“When sentiment can make an unremarkable space ‘magical’ “
By Hong Xinyi
Hong Xinyi’s article in today’s Insight section made a remark so true that my heart might have skipped a beat when I read it. It was about her sentiments and thoughts on what is going on in the heart of our small global city state – that of the erasure and eradication of our magical spaces – or what’s left of them, that is.
So what are these ‘magical spaces’ in Singapore? Which part of the island makes your heart yearn for days gone by, makes you think of that time when you were 16 or 5; and gives you a warm tingly feeling everytime you set foot there? Miss Hong raised a good point about the relevance and importance of civic structures like the old Parliament building, the old Supreme Court, and the City Hall, to name a few, which are “stylistically distinctive and historically important.” She also justly pointed out that that a lot of seemingly unremarkable, everyday spaces, which may appear to the uninitiated, untrained eye as lacking in standards of aesthetics and design, are actually vasts repositories of emotional treasures which many Singaporeans and past visitors hold close to their hearts.
Singapore is a constant landscape of change and transition. The past 5 years have already seen the reordering and reconstruction of valuable and distinctive ( and undoubtedly historically important ) places such as the old Newton Hawker Centre, Chomp Chomp, Tiong Bahru, and other public spaces that resonate with the past and present of Singapore. Roads change every other day due to the demands of the construction of the numerous Mass Rapid Transit lines that are emerging all over the island. Singapore is a global city, relying on a constant cycle of flux
and innovation that will keep it on its toes for decades to come. It was no surprise then that Singapore Institute of Architects President Tai Lee Siang cited in the article that “sentimental value alone is not enough justification for preservation”.
You should really read Xinyi’s Article; especially the last two paragraphs. They prove the point that she, and many of us are trying to make. Miss Hong quotes the SIA’s recently issued manifesto: “The recent debate on en bloc sale of properties spark a concern on whether we are losing our architectural heritage far too soon. ‘Good’ buildings such as Futura, Beverly Mai and Pearl Bank appear destined for the way of the demolition ball.We need to urgently debate whether these buildings form the architectural heritage of our city. Are they of the same value as our national monuments or the humble shophouse?”
I think the answer is quite clear. – FFW
Please send any requests for the scanned article to contact@fivefootway.com
SM Goh urges architects to turn S’pore into global city.
Senior Minister Goh Chok Tong has urged architects and urban planners to make Singapore a global city that is cosmopolitan but with a strong Asian core.
Mr Goh believes it is a formula that others would find hard to copy.
But he said this would also set Singapore apart from other countries which are also striving to be global cities.
Mr Goh has been made an honorary fellow of the Singapore Institute of Architects.
In a speech, he outlined three areas how Singapore’s urban planners and architects have helped transform the cityscape. Full Article- CNA
NAG Jury Snippets
In order to get a better idea of the jury that’s going to be deciding on the winning entry for the National Art Gallery Competition, FFW sussed out some of the relevant histories that each of the jury members have. Quite an impressive line up, there’s no shortage of expertise. Each member brings relevant experience to the jury on paper, having done a lot of work in the realm of museums, historical collections, and art. Combined, one certainly hopes that their powers can be multiplied, because the job of creating an Art Gallery for a nation with such a diverse cultural make up requires a team of judges who are aware of how complex this challenge is. The list follows:
- Heading the Jury, is Prof Tommy Koh, Chairman of the National Heritage Board in Singapore, and also Ambassador-At-Large for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Not short of credentials, you can find out more about him here. When someone has his own Wikipedia page you can be sure he isn’t just another somebody…
- Next is Mrs Cheong-Chua Koon Hean, CEO of the Urban Redevelopment Authorit (URA) in Singapore, concurrently the Deputy-Secretary of the Ministry of National Development. Mrs Cheong-Chua Koon Hean was a Colombo Plan scholar who graduated from Australia as a university gold medallist in architecture, and holds a master’s degree in urban development planning from University College, London. She has held several portfolios in the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore and has extensive experience in both strategic and local planning as well as in urban design and conservation. Mrs Cheong has been involved in the preparation of the Singapore oncept Plan, its long range land use and transport plan, as well as the Master Plan which sets out the detail plans for the city state. - URA
- Mr Jean-Francois Jarrige is a French archaeologist specializing in South Asian archaeology. He holds a doctorate from the University of Paris in oriental archaeology. He has done excavations in Baluchistan, Mehrgarh and Pirak. Present-day director of the Guimet Museum, Jean-François Jarrige has had a long productive career in archaeology. His most well-known excavations were as the director of the French Archaeological Mission, excavating the sites of Mehrgarh and Nindowari in Pakistan. -Wikipedia
- Mr Koh Seow Chuan is a board member of the National Heritage Board, Singapore, and is also a founding director at DP Architects in Singapore. Mr Koh is also a renowned philatelist and an avid collector of social historical documents, maps, and antiquarian and art books. The Koh Seow Chuan Collection boasts money-lending documents that capture loan obligations of the 19th and early 20th centuries. It offers a glimpse of how money changed hands in Singapore to meet daily commercial and personal needs. It portrays the money-lending community in Singapore, with a special focus on the Chettiars. It also gives an insight to the problems that arose from unregulated money-lending activities before the introduction of the Money-lenders Ordinance of 1935. - NHB Website
- Mr Julian Raby hails from the United Kingdom and is Director of the Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Gallery and is a former member of the Faculty of Oriental Studies at the University of Oxford, England. A well-known teacher and scholar of Islamic art, Raby has a wide range of scholarly interests, from Byzantium to China, Late Antiquity to the Renaissance. Raby also has extensive experience in the field of publishing. At Oxford, he was the Series Founder and Series Editor of Oxford Studies in Islamic Art. Raby is the founder and former co-owner of Azimuth Editions, a major publisher in the field of Asian studies. In addition, Raby has served as curator, concept designer and consultant for numerous museum exhibitions in both the United States and abroad. An active participant in professional and educational associations, Raby has served as a member of the Council of the British Institute of Archaeology and History in Amman, Jordan, and is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. - The Smithsonian Institute
- Mrs Rita Soh Siow Lan is Immediate Past President of the Singapore Institute of Architects, and partner at RDC Architects. She has been involved in many feasibility studies, competition proposals, design and detailing of residential, resort and commercial projects, both local and overseas, and project management. Mrs Soh was instrumental in RDC Architects’ effort to be the first architectural practice in Singapore to attain an ISO 9001 rating in 1992. - RDC Architects
- Mr Peter Wilson is Project Director for the Royal Shakespeare Company Transformation Project, UK. Peter was building project director for both Tate Modern and the Tate Britain Centenary Development. Other projects at the Tate include acting as the Tate client for Cornwall County Council’s Tate St Ives, plus a number of other projects, including the second phase of Tate Liverpool in 1998. As Project Director for the redevelopment, Peter will work closely with the RSC Directors to transform the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and redevelop the Company’s Stratford-upon-Avon estate. During his career he has been an adviser to the National Trust, researched museum lighting at the Bartlett School of Architecture, chaired the Museum Documentation Association, acted as the client adviser for the Astrup-Fearnley Museum in Oslo and helped to write the brief for Zaha Hadid’s Centro per le Arti Contemporanee in Rome. In 2000 he gave both the Gertrude Langer Lecture at Queensland Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia 18th Birthday Lecture in Canberra. He has been a member of the Project Steering Committee for Laban in the UK, and the CABE enabling panel and is a board member of Woking Galleries.
- FFW
National Art Gallery: Competition Jury Announced
Just in: Submissions for the National Art Gallery closed on Friday, April the 13th (an ominous date?!). The jury panel was recently announced, and will be chaired by Professor Tommy Koh, Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large and comprises:
- Mrs Cheong-Chua Koon Hean, CEO, Urban Redevelopment Authority, Singapore
- Mr Jean-François Jarrige, Director of Guimet Musee National des Arts Asiatiques, France
- Mr Koh Seow Chuan, Chairman of National Art Gallery Executive Committee, who is also the Chairman of Singapore Art Museum and Board Member of the National Heritage Board, Singapore
- Dr Julian Raby, Director, Freer Gallery of Art & Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, USA
- Ms Rita Soh, President, Singapore Institute of Architects, Singapore
- Mr Peter Wilson, Project Director, Royal Shakespeare Company Transformation Project, UK
One assumes that when such matters of National significance arise, there are of course several obvious concerns which, rhetoric or not, warrant some amount of discussion and debate. In this case, we have the National Art Gallery Competition, about to be judged by a panel of judges that has been chosen by an apparently anonymous committee, probably from the National Arts Council, or the National Heritage Board.
For now, it has not been revealed as yet whether the Singaporean public would be consulted in the future with regard to the selection of design proposals for the National Art Gallery. It is also noticeable that the jury themselves have impeccable credentials, undoubtedly suited for the job of establishing yet another Gallery-to-be. However, would they know what would best suit Singapore? What was the criteria for selection of the jury panel? Who exactly are these selected panel members, and how would they best represent the nation in selecting the decidedly ‘best’ design for Singapore? Hopefully, there will be some word from the organizers in response to these questions raised.
In any case, FFW will seek to find out the answers in reports to follow.. -FFW
CUGE
A new facility has been opened at the Singapore Botanic Gardens to train greenery specialists here and from around the world. 82 people made up first batch who recently received their arborist certification form the Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology (CUGE), which opened on Thursday the 12th of April. The Centre offers courses on several subjects like plant management and landscape design, and has established links with USA-based non-profit organization the International Society of Arboriculture, offering its certification right here in Singapore.
Cuge signals a redoubling of Singapore’s “greening effort”, said Parliamentary Secretary Mohamad Maliki Osman yesterday at Cuge’s opening ceremony. He pointed to upcoming projects like the Integrated Resorts and the proposed Gardens by the Bay project which will feature 101 hectares of pure garden in the Marina Bay area. - Tania Tan, The Straits Times, p. H10, Friday, April 13 2007
Could this be the beginning of something more, in the relationship between landscape & green, with local and regional architecture? (and not just at the urban scale.) Already, the international architecture fraternity is turning to solutions that incorporate and integrate literal landscapes with buildings – Diller Scofidio’s Lincoln Centre Proposal & their New York Highline project or practices like Emilio Ambasz & Associates.
Local practices already put considerable emphasis on plants, greening and landscaping – think Akitek Tenggara’s Saigon House , or K2LD’s King Albert Park House, among others – but professionalism in the field of arboriculture could signal a more specialized and established symphony between architects, designers, and arborists to create new meanings for ‘green’ architecture in the future, should architects decide to call on the skills of these professionals. Future urban designs and competitions could call for architects and designers, with the help of CUGE, to step up to the task of proposing new landscapes for the city.
Should the arborists from CUGE move onto the realm of architecture, horticulture and landscape could become more commonplace in homes and even highrise dwellings of the future. - FFW
Government to release more sites for office use to meet demand
The government is set to release more sites for office use through its land sales programme to meet increasing demand.
Besides land sales, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said the government would also consider releasing existing sites.
And this includes freeing up vacated government office sites in the city area.
In land-scarce Singapore, releasing space for office use requires careful planning.
To meet the growing demand, the Central Boulevard and Beach Road sites have been released.-CNA
Singapore Gold Consortium reveals its Horseshoe of a Sports Hub
With an estimated cost of $600 million, Singapore Gold’s horseshoe shaped National Stadium, designed by HOK Sport Architecture, will boast the world’s first waterfront stadium with a retractable roof. The horse shoe design provides a view of the Kallang Basin and the city, while allowing the natural breeze to cool the stadium.
The complex also has another distinguishing feature that embraces the water theme.
“We have created what we call a Sports Quay, with the Kallang Basin at the heart and all the facilities built and designed around water. This is a public space so what we have done is create a new public destination place for Singapore,” says Paul Henry, senior principal of HOK Sport Architecture.
The quay also means the project is environmentally friendly, as it helps with the cooling of the entire complex. – CNA
Pritzker Prize 2007
Richard Rogers has been announced as the winner of the Pritzker Prize 2007. -Official Pritzker Prize site
Other reports and interviews with Richard Rogers. Newsday | New York Times | Chicago Tribune
