THE SUBLIME CONTROL - SOUTHERN RIDGES

Abstract

Singapore landscape has always been under scrutiny and criticism, its displacement with respect to context, time, heritage, identity, cultures, etc has been deemed too estranged, bearing the crime of total erasure – tabula rasa, as observed by Rem Koolhaas. This hyped eradication is made possible under the totalitarianism rule that the government exerts on this tiny island; for the sake of continual growth and benefits of its people. The landscape propose a certain tendency to the phenomenon of Bigness, as illustrated in Koolhaas’ essay entitled Bigness, or the Problem of Large, subtly hinting on the sublimity of this issue. The historical discourse of sublime then becomes a framework in understanding the form of Singapore’s landscape, hypothesizing on the control that is shaping this form to be subliminal; the extend of control being difficult to represent. As part of the Park Connector and Identity Plan, The Southern Ridges, consisting of Kent Ridge Park, HortPark, Telong Blangah Hill Park and Mount Faber Park, then becomes the object of discussion; it is a forever-defining monstrosity taking over a natural landscape of the ridges and jungles. This dissertation hopes to present as an extension to the discourse of sublime. The lack of apprehension, followed by comprehension, defines object of sublime fascinating and fearful – a paradoxical pleasure. Yet, in Singapore, the state of sublime transcends after apprehension and comprehension, for we do know and understand the ‘unknown’. Instead, this sense of sublime exists in a somewhat perpetuating desire to control, waves after waves, a never-ending process, the landscape then showing specific characteristics to allow such sublimity to occur.