Contents
Introduction
Everyday Modernism: The Singapore Vernacular 67
LIVE
1 Public Housing: The Many Shapes of Home 86
2 People's Park: Pioneering Integrated Living in a Denser City 92
3 Futura: The Past and Future of Luxury High-rise Apartments 96
4 Pandan Valley: The Domestication of "Rural" Singapore 102
5 Pearl Bank Apartments: How Can We Maintain the High Life? 108
PLAY
6 Cinemas: The Architecture of Advertisement 116
7 Shopping Centres: Moving Retail from the Streets to the Interior 122
8 Hotels: Singapore as a Tropical Asian Paradise 128
9 Lookout Towers: Views of Singapore's Modern Development 134
10 East Coast Park: "The Singapore Way" of Recreation 140
11 HOB Playgrounds: Sandboxes for Moulding Model Citizens 144
12 City Council Pools: Swimming for Health, Leisure and Survival 148
13 Former Singapore Badminton Hall: Financial Gymnastics and Sporting Venues 152
WORK
14 Shenton Way: Singapore's Commercial Centre Grows Up! 160
15 Industrial Spaces: Housing Industrialisation, then a Tech Revolution 166
16 Jurong Town Hall Road: The Industrial Future as Brutalist 172
17 Tan Boon Liat Building: A Modern Godown for the Creative Economy 178
TRAVEL
18 Market Street Car Park: Up, Up ... and Who Pays? 184
19 Pan-Island Expressway: Speeding Up and Spreading Out Modern Life 190
20 Pedestrian Overhead Bridges: Staying Safe Amidst Accelerated Development 196
21 Interchanges: The "Nerve Centre" of an Efficient Public Transport 202
CONNECT
22 Public Schools: In Search of a Flexible and Identifiable "Instructional Equipment" 208
23 Institutes of Higher Education: Systems Planning to Support a Technocratic State 214
24 Institutional Buildings: A New Monumentality 220
25 Public Libraries: " Palaces for the People" 226
26 Community Centres: Modernising the "Central Nervous System" of Singapore 232
27 Hawker Centres: Regulating Itinerant Individuals into a Social Institution 238
28 Lucky Plaza: A Mall for the Migrants Who Modernised Singapore 244
PRAY
29 Churches: Bringing God Closer to the Suburbs and the People 252
30 Cinema-Churches: From a "House of Pictures" to a "House of Prayers" 256
31 Darul Aman Mosque: A Modern Revival of the Traditional 260
32 Columbaria: Raising Up the Dead for the Living 266
Index 272
Image Credits 284
Biographies 288
Acknowledgements 289