OBJECTS OF IDEALS

Abstract

This thesis explores Singapore’s urban environments as ‘objects’ – areas of the city that have been portioned out through segregation and singularity due to the inheritance of functionalist planning approaches. A sample study was made on a strip of Singapore, 5km wide, along the Northeast MRT line. Objects were identified along this strip, and studied in terms of their relative distances, boundaries, and idealized forms and envisioned identities. Based on these characteristics, the thesis aimed to amplify the Object-ness of the environment. The scenario envisioned is that the focus of future densification and development would be on the Object areas, seen as places of real value in a system that values functionality, efficiency and ease of control. In these areas, a focus is placed on orchestrating an idealized image within the constraints of the boundary of each Object. Two areas in Singapore are explored in detail: Orchard road and Punggol New Town. Ideas were collected from the urban environment, as well as press releases from agencies such as the Singapore Tourism Board, Urban Redevelopment Authority, and Housing Development Board. Respectively, the designs explore paradisiacal visions of Orchard as a ‘Uniquely Singapore’ consumerist dream and Punggol as an escapist home on the waterfront. By playing up the latent ideals of local agencies, each object comes to represent the eventuality of the current planning and development strategies, and is both a dream and a nightmare.