LOST LANDSCAPES IN SINGAPORE: RAFFLES HOTEL AND THE ARMENIAN HERITAGE

Abstract

This dissertation attempts to establish the significance of the physical artefact in the Landscape. It also attempts to surface the ‘silent’ presence of the Armenian ethnic minority on the Landscape. The concepts of Landscape pertinent to the study will first be established. Raffles Hotel will then be examined as a case study to surface lost landscapes of its Armenian heritage. The study is limited to the single artefact of Raffles Hotel as being representative of the Armenian Heritage. Only one other building, the Armenian Church, has a direct lineage to this ethnic group. Raffles Hotel was selected as it presented a unique opportunity to understand how such an iconic building, recognizable in the imagination of the public is curiously ‘silent’ as an Armenian imprint on the Landscape. The history of events that influenced factors contributing to the existence of Raffles Hotel, as well as the immediate history of Raffles Hotel are examined in detail in bid to understand the various relationships that contribute towards the conception of Landscapes that may be surfaced within the Hotel. After a study of both the history of Raffles Hotel and an experience of the Hotel as it currently stands, one finds that the running of the Hotel, and the experience of it as an artefact today remains true to the enterprising spirit that had characterized it in its early days when it was operated by the Armenian Sarkies Brothers. There is no explicit Armenian etching of their heritage upon the artefact, their imprint was on a more subtle level in the envisioning of the Hotel as an enterprise. It was in their conception of the Landscape, and the business positioning and thus resultant physical experience of the Hotel that they left their mark as on the Hotel. And it is in understanding these processes that the lost landscapes of the Armenians are to be found.