Tag: Singapore Architecture

East Coast Park: “The Singapore Way” to Recreation

Despite being touted as an “explosive book”, Socialism That Works… The Singapore Way has a surprisingly idyllic-looking cover.[1] Featuring an aerial photograph of a tree-lined lagoon and greenery that stretches into the horizon, the book could be mistaken for a tourism brochure. Instead, this picture of East Coast Park fronts a 268-page publication that refutes “the many half-truths perpetrated by hostile parties” about Singapore, including the government’s detention of communists without trial and its controls on trade unions and the press.

Over 10 chapters, the country’s top politicians and trade unionists refuted the allegations and made a case for how successful Singapore had become under the rule of the People’s Action Party (PAP). East Coast Park was just one picturesque outcome. As Singapore’s newest and largest public recreational centre when Socialism That Works was released in 1976, the park showcase how the PAP had literally reshaped the island for modern play.

[1] ‘Socialism That Works… the Singapore Way’, The Business Times, 1 February 1977.

➜ Read the full story in The Singapore Architect #15 (May-August 2019)

Safdie Architects Designs a 130-Foot-High Indoor Waterfall for Singapore’s Jewel Changi Airport

The 1.46-million-square-foot development features a steel diagrid dome covered with more than 9,300 glass panels and a multi-story terraced landscape.

➜ Read the full story in Metropolis Magazine

#ADesignLibrary: Las Vegas in Singapore (2019)

Amidst news of Singapore’s integrated resorts expanding, Lee Kah-Wee’s timely book on the histories of gambling in the city-state is well worth a read. Carefully dissecting the state’s efforts to control gambling in colonial and modern Singapore as well as the rise of the casino in Las Vegas, the book makes a compelling case for how a seeming act of morality is also tied to spatial politics and capitalism. There is even a juicy chapter behind the design of the now iconic Marina Bay Sands!

#ADesignLibrary spotlights lesser known design books, and invites public access to my personal collection of titles that focuses on Singapore architecture and design, Asian design, everyday design, critical and speculative design as well as design theory and philosophy. I welcome inquiries and physical loans.