BETWEEN COMMUNITY AND SOCIETY : JURONG WEST STREET 81
TAN EE TENG, EUDORA
TAN EE TENG, EUDORA
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Abstract
Architecture and urbanism form the physical of construct social space yet at the
same time, they are constructed by the social fabric of the locale. The dissertation
follows the work of Shannon Castleman, Jurong West Street 81, and unearths the
existing nature of the neighbourhood of the four blocks that were subjects of the
project. The way the film project had been conceived and crafted reveals the
disparate relationships between the opposite neighbours being conciliated by the
camera and the image at the window. Despite its separateness, the neighbourhood
seems to have an undertone of a community that had been lost but still lingering in
fragments. The social fabric of the four blocks is then investigated and aligned with
the theoretical framework of Ferdinand Tönnies’ Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft, which
correspondingly explicate “community” and “society”.
The dissertation presents a discursive work on the mutual existence of the two
theoretical models that had been proposed as antithetical. There had been a
primordial existence of community in the Malay kampong, urban villages and
squatters in old Singapore. Over time, with a clear prescription for an artificial
community and the rapid metropolitan changes of the city and its dwellers, the
structure of society is intrinsic and powerful. As such, the community seems to be
occluded. However, through Jurong West Street 81 and the groundwork of the four
blocks, it is evident that both “society” and “community” coexist and are in a
dialectical relationship, subject to external influences.
Elaborating on the current realities of the inclination towards a Gesellschaft, an innate
search for the Gemeinschaft surfaces through the study of Castleman’s project. This
dissertation proposes that the community is constructed through concerted desire
and effort, and because scarcity, need and contingency have become nonconsequential
in our society that such a desire for interdependency is missing. Thus it
seems that the framework in which architecture positions itself necessitates a
contingency plan for perhaps, an irrational want for the Gemeinschaft.
Keywords
Architecture, Design Track, Wong Chong Thai Bobby, 2010/2011 DT, Community, Gemeinschaft, Gesellschaft
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Date
2011-02-21
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Dissertation