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Abstract

The late economist Mancur Olson noted, nations and regions that grow up and prosper in one era, often find it difficult and sometimes impossible to adapt and adopt new organizational methods, regardless of how beneficial they may be. It’s not hard to understand their reluctance to simply give up on a ‘tried and proven’ method that’s served them so well over the years, and their resistance to change - a condition Olson termed “institutional sclerosis”.1 Unfortunately, this phenomenon is often the downfall of these nations. Innovation and growth consequently flows to other nations that are willing to adapt and adopt these shifts for their benefit. A quick survey of history would suggest that it is how England got left behind in the early 1890s, and the United States of America became the world’s great economic power.

As Singapore celebrates its Golden Jubilee this year, and we are flooded with ‘SG50’ icons ‘stuck’ onto the most random of things ranging from driving licenses to fishcakes, it is fitting that we take a moment to celebrate the success of this ‘modern’ nation. But, I would suggest it is now the time to ‘loosen our grip’ on these methods that have proved so successful for so long, in order to negotiate our next fifty years in this world that looks very different from the one at our unplanned birth fifty years ago.

This dissertation is a tribute to the [architectural] contributions of modernism - whose days are numbered - in our society, a discovery process and learning journey of everything that is wrong and the taboo topics within our profession and the architectural education, a realignment of misconceptions and confusions, and ultimately a recommendation for the way forward to navigate the next fifty years and beyond!