Overview

A richly illustrated account of the development of Singapore’s modern built environment.   Everyday Modernism is the first comprehensive documentation of Singapore’s modern built environment. Through a lens of social, cultural, and architectural histories, the book uncovers the many untold stories of the Southeast Asian city-state’s modernization, from the rise of heroic skyscrapers, such as the Pearl Bank Apartments, to the spread of typical utilitarian buildings like the multistory parking garage. It investigates how modernism, through both form and function, radically transformed Singapore and made its inhabitants into modern citizens. The most intensive period of such change, the author shows, happened in the 1960s and 1970s under the rise of a developmental state that sought to safeguard its new-found independence. The book also looks both earlier and later, however, ranging from the 1930s to the 1980s to cover a wider range of histories, building types, and architectural styles, expanding from the International Style and Brutalism into Art Deco and even a touch of Postmodernism. The book’s essays are richly illustrated with hundreds of archival images and illustrations, as well as contemporary photos by architectural photographer Darren Soh. By examining the evolution of the once exceptional into the typical and by learning how abstract spaces become lived places, the book traces how modernism has become part of everyday life in Singapore.  

Full Product Details

Author:   Jiat-Hwee Chang ,  Justin Zhuang ,  Darren Soh
Publisher:   NUS Press
Imprint:   NUS Press
Weight:   0.757kg
ISBN:  

9789813251878

ISBN 10:   9813251875
Pages:   376
Publication Date:   31 October 2022
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

"Introduction A. Live 1. Public Housing: The Many Shapes of Home 2. People's Park: Pioneering Integrated Living in a Denser City 3. Futura: The Past and Future of Luxury High-rise Apartments 4. Pandan Valley: The Domestication of ""Rural"" Singapore 5. Pearl Bank Apartments: How Can We Maintain the High Life? B. Play 6. Cinemas: The Architecture of Advertisement 7. Shopping Centres: Moving Retail from the Streets to the Interior 8. Hotels: Singapore as a Tropical Asian Paradise 9. Lookout Towers: Views of Singapore's Modern Development 10. East Coast Park: ""The Singapore Way"" to Recreation 11. HDB Playgrounds: Sandboxes for Moulding Model Citizens 12. City Council Pools: Swimming for Health, Leisure and Survival 13. Former Singapore Badminton Hall: Financial Gymnastics and Sporting Venues C. Work 14. Shenton Way: Singapore's Commercial Centre Grows Up! 15. Industrial Spaces: Housing Industrialisation, then a Tech Revolution 16. Jurong Town Hall Road: The Industrial Future as Brutalist 17. Tan Boon Liat Building: A Modern Godown for the Creative Economy D. Travel 18. Market Street Car Park: Up, up… and Who Pays? 19. Pan-Island Expressway: Speeding Up and Spreading Out Modern Life 20. Pedestrian Overhead Bridges: Staying Safe Amidst Accelerated Development 21. Interchanges: The ""Nerve Centre"" of an Efficient Public Transport E. Connect 22. Public Schools: In Search of a Flexible and Identifiable ""Instructional Equipment"" 23. Institutes of Higher Education: Systems Planning to Support a Technocratic State 24. Institutional Buildings: A New Monumentality 25. Public Libraries: ""Palaces for the People"" 26. Community Centres: Modernising the ""Central Nervous System"" of Singapore 27. Hawker Centres: Regulating Itinerant Individuals into a Social Institution 28. Lucky Plaza: A Mall for the Migrants who Modernised Singapore F. Pray 29. Churches: Bringing God Closer to the Suburbs and the People 30. Cinema-Churches: From a ""House of Pictures"" to a ""House of Prayers"" 31. Darul Aman Mosque: A Modern Revival of the Traditional 32. Columbaria: Raising Up the Dead for the Living"

Reviews

The book captures the life of Singapore's modernist developments through 32 essays, each covering various typologies, which fills a gap in documentation on them. -- The Straits Times The story of Tan Boon Liat Building is one of 32 essays in Everyday Modernism that gives readers an insight into Singapore's development through its architecture, not only seen through buildings but also in everyday or more mundane structures such as overhead bridges and city council pools. . . . [The essays] make for easy reading and provide context on Singapore's development from post-independence to the 1980s. -- The Business Times (Singapore)

Author Information

Jiat-Hwee Chang is associate professor in the Department of Architecture at National University of Singapore. Justin Zhuang is a writer and researcher based in Singapore, and cofounder of writing studio In Plain Words. Darren Soh is a photographer based in Singapore.

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