HOUSING THE PEOPLE, REPRESENTING A NATION: AN ARCHITECTURAL READING OF THE (RE)IMAGING OF HOME THROUGH MEDIA REPRESENTATIONS

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to examine the idea of the Singapore home through its representations and their potential meanings. Housing is a hallmark of Singapore’s national domestic agenda. In Singapore, the Housing & Development Board’s flats house nearly 82 per cent of the nation . In light of this, HDB flats can be regarded representational of the typical Singaporean home. Moreover, HDB’s flats have become the formal backdrop to Singapore’s urban landscape, as well as, iconic representations of Singapore’s success in public housing. In this regard, the HDB flat brings forth the notion of “home as a national symbol”. Therefore this paper intends to explore the coalescence of the national and individual ideas of home. The exploration is mainly conducted through analysis of the media representations to suggest that the Singaporean idea of ‘home’ is institutionalized by the state to serve a national agenda. This paper intends to conduct an investigation into Our Home magazine to examine how the orchestration of architectural representations is utilized for specific purposes, i.e. agenda. The analysis will consist of deconstructing different forms of media representations using techniques derived from literature readings to assess whose interests they are reflective of. It includes drawing parallels to case study examples that will illustrate the different agendas – communal, national, idealistic, cultural or nostalgic – and the effects they will have on their architectural and literary representations. In the case of Our Home magazine, the agenda is a redefinition of ‘home’ within the context of the Singapore HDB system in the service of national cohesion and identity.