[RE]CONCEPTUALIZING THE CIVILIAN WAR MEMORIAL : A CANONICAL OBJECT OF SINGAPORE MODERNISM

Abstract

The materialization of the Civilian War Memorial took more than twenty years to be realized. In the making of this memorial, the intention of this memorial has transformed from the original spontaneous act of remembering the victims of the Sook Ching Operation to the national act of nation building.

This dissertation aims to investigate the effects of the transformation of the intention of this memorial on the architectural design. The invention of architectural language and forms that are different from the Malayan war memorials were the results of the programmatic adjustments and incorporation of national ideology has resulted in. This paper will investigate, through a study of the design entries submitted for the memorial competition, the possibilities of modern architectural language of abstraction to stand in for narratives.

The design of the Civilian War Memorial suggests the “residual” of historicist and traditional elements. The dissertation hypothesizes that, while the design of this memorial needs to suggest the essence of Singapore’s modernity, it has incorporated the elements of historical objects, modern architecture characteristics and local influence in the design of the memorial. The image of modernity of this memorial is portrayed through the innovation of new modern architectural form of abstraction and symbolical representation.