Events

Jointly organized by Asia Research Institute, and Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Asst Prof Dorothy Tang, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

PROGRAM

ABSTRACT

Everyday Modernism: Architecture and Society in Singapore is the first comprehensive documentation of Singapore’s modern built environment. Through a series of building biographies, the book uncovers the many untold histories of the Southeast Asian city-state’s modernisation, from the rise of iconic buildings, such as the Pearl Bank Apartments, the former PUB Building and the Jurong Town Hall, to the spread of ordinary typologies like the condominium, the multi-storey car park, the podium-tower block, the flatted factory, the community centre, the standardised school building, the pedestrian overhead bridge, and the columbarium.

Co-authored by Jiat Hwee Chang and Justin Zhuang, the book’s 33 essays cover the social and architectural lives of many modernist types in Singapore—from their births to their transformations in both their social perceptions and uses over time, and finally to their eventual deaths through demolitions and redevelopments. The essays are richly illustrated with some 200 archival images and drawings as well as more than 100 contemporary photos by architectural photographer Darren Soh. By examining the evolution of the once exceptional into the typical and how abstract spaces become lived places, the book traces how modernism radically transformed Singapore, made its inhabitants into modern citizens and has become part of everyday life in the city.

Discounted copies of the book will be on sale at the event.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Jiat Hwee Chang is Associate Professor of Architecture and Research Leader of the Science, Technology and Society (STS) Cluster at the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore. He is an interdisciplinary researcher working at the intersections of architecture, environment and STS. He is the author of A Genealogy of Tropical Architecture: Colonial Networks, Nature and Technoscience (2016), which is awarded an International Planning History Society Book Prize 2018 and shortlisted for the European Association for Southeast Asian Studies Humanities Book Prize 2017. He is currently working on a book manuscript on the socio-cultural histories and techno-politics of air-conditioning and climate change in urban Asia. Jiat Hwee’s latest book (with Justin Zhuang and Darren Soh) Everyday Modernism: Architecture and Society in Singapore follows his other research trajectory on modernism in Asia. The book builds on his earlier co-edited volumes Non West Modernist Past (2011) and Southeast Asia’s Modern Architecture (2018). Informed by his work with the NGO Singapore Chapter of Docomomo International, the book is an attempt to expand our understanding of modernism through its focus on the social histories of ordinary buildings, infrastructures, and landscapes in Singapore.

Justin Zhuang is an observer of the designed world and its impact on everyday life. Since 2009, the journalism graduate has covered architecture and design for various magazines in Singapore and around the world. Zhuang has authored several books and projects inspired by observations of everyday designs in Singapore. They include Reclaim Land: The Fight for Space in Singapore (2009) and INDEPENDENCE: The History of Graphic Design in Singapore since the 1960s (2012). More recently, he produced By Design: SINGAPORE (2019), a collection of 10 stories on unexpected creativity from the city. In 2013, Zhuang was awarded the DesignSingapore Scholarship to pursue a Master of Fine Arts in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Since returning home, Zhuang has continued researching into local design and started the Singapore Graphic Archives. He also consults the London-based publisher, Thames & Hudson on developing architecture and design titles from Southeast Asia. Together with his partner Sheere Ng, Zhuang is also the co-founder of In Plain Words, a Singapore-based writing studio and publishing imprint.

Darren Soh is an architectural and landscape photographer, and a sociologist by training. Darren’s personal works are an extension of his curiosity about how we live and the spaces we create as well as leave behind. He has a particular interest in modernist architecture and is a founding member of the Singapore chapter of DOCOMOMO. In 2018, Darren published Before It All Goes, which was accompanied by an exhibition and documentary of the same name, championing for the conservation of Singapore’s modernist icons. Darren also photographs and writes about public housing in Singapore. His works are collected by the National Museum of Singapore, National Gallery Singapore, various institutions and private collectors from around the world.

Daniel P.S. Goh is Associate Professor of Sociology and Associate Provost (Undergraduate Education), National University of Singapore, and Vice Dean (Special Programmes), NUS College. He is a comparative-historical sociologist who studies state formation, race and multiculturalism, urbanisms, and religion. His edited books include Precarious Belongings: Affect and Nationalism in Asia(2017), Regulating Religion in Asia (2019), and (together with Tim Bunnell) Urban Asias: Essays on Futurity Past and Present (2018). A full bibliography can be found at www.danielpsgoh.com.

Joshua Comaroff is a designer and an academic. He studied at Amherst College and Harvard Graduate School of Design, taking degrees in the fields of literature, architecture, and landscape architecture. In 2009, Joshua completed a PhD in cultural geography at University of California Los Angeles, writing on the subject of haunted landscapes and urban memory in Singapore. He has published writing about architecture, urbanism, religion, and politics, with an Asian focus. In particular, his research focuses upon the effect of material and immaterial practices (such as faith, affect, and speculation) in the experience of the city. His articles have been published in Public Culture, Cultural Geographies, Journal of Architectural Education, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, CITY, and Harvard Design Magazine, Architectural Review, and ArtForum. Joshua is Assistant Professor in the Urban Studies program at Yale-NUS College.

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the event.