DIVORCING AND MEDIATING BETWEEN THE INTERIOR AND THE EXTERIOR: AN IMMANENT ORDER OF CONSERVED SHOPHOUSE FACADES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Facadism is often understood as a negotiation between development and conservation. It is often disapproved of on the grounds of architectural honesty. In relation to general accusations of architectural dishonesty towards facadism, this dissertation explores the meaning of shophouse façade retention in Singapore as found in conservation approaches, users’ demand and architects’ interventions. Employing various conceptual lenses including semiotics theory and Leong Yew’s concept of Singaporean self-Orientalism, an analysis of the architectural subject Lorong 24A Shophouse Series reveals competing and complementing meanings imbued to shophouse facades. The resultant immanent orders of the conserved facades are varied and dialectical; they require a rethink of the Modernist notion of architectural honesty. In the end, this paper shows that projects such as Lorong 24A Shophouse Series simultaneously partakes in the rehabilitation of Modern architecture and the self- Orientalizing of local vernacular architecture. Although necessarily divorcing the interior from the exterior, the immanent order of shophouse facades also mediate with its various demands which often do not take on physical form. This requires a different architectural morality that recognises complex truths rather than physical styles.