2025 June

Editorial

Singapore is arriving at its 60th year post independence as a republic. Together with a long list of colonies of empire that had gained an independent status, it had arguably evolved most intensively. This is inevitable because of its small size and intense connectivity with international influences and with many of its nationals not even native to Singapore. It is a nation of migrants, with many also educated abroad. Its leadership had also passed on from the Founders to a stable set of succession and more importantly a system of succession and institutional ethos that creates a kind of identity.

Its relative success in developing high growth and rapid change inevitably triggers a reassessment when, if personified as a person, the country had advanced to a "senior hood" if not maturity.

This "feeling" is like that of a person at the age of 60 reflecting upon matters as a kind of re-assessment. A reassessment of both achievements and perhaps where we may have room to grow.

I hope in the following compendium to offer a glimpse into is "mood of reassessment".

01. Ronald Tan takes us via "A survey of Singapore contemporary architecture" as an anchor essay.

02. Then we have the recent awardees of the Singapore Institute of Architects Design Awards, an award that is very popularly subscribed to by the fraternity. More telling is that the type of work, the current "Awardees" and the huge shiny complexes funded by huge corporations are juxtaposed starkly against the small, the nuanced, and the re-invigoration of heritage and tradition.

03. We see quite interestingly ground up initiatives by non profit organizations like DOCOMOMO Singapore who takes great pains to flesh out a strong position and offer free options for State considerations. These non-profit function as research, education and advocate for the continuous reassessment of what is modern

04. The state itself is also very conscious of the community and assets that structures and patterns of use have turned buildings into key components of a place. This place awareness sees placemaking as now an important part of urban renewal. Sometimes is it not only about a new place but also the "old place". Delta Sports Complex is about an old place made new.

05. Climate and sustainability take on an urgency at every level. Net zero and low energy building require a rethinking on envelop, what is comfort and what is an acceptable balance between the needs of high. In NUS the efforts are spearheaded by the Department of Architecture no less in the form of SDE3 (School of Design and Environment Building 3) and recent reframing of the student centre at Yusof Ishak House. We see an intense attempt to re-frame, with the new low carbon, low energy buildings not just as devices to manage climate change but also to imbrue that agenda with an aesthetic.

06. On a allied yet telling journey on how Singapore is truly a Creative City of Design, Lai Chee Kien takes us through the very interesting design journey of our popular mascots.