Architectural Masters Thesis
National University of Singapore, NUS M(Arch) 2017
Under tutelage of Lilian Chee
This thesis presents a critique on the inexistence of imperfection of the Singapore landscape, in relation to processes, like conservation, restoration, and development, where architecture with a lifespan is unacknowledged and dismissed.
Private domestic ruins are a temporary phenomenon that escapes this rejection of imperfection and are constantly in limbo. They are a physical manifestation of living, growing, dying architecture. The ruins of Istana Woodneuk exist in the heart of Singapore, protected in a blind spot. Has Woodneuk’s disappearance allowed it to fully ‘live’ within this local narrative?
The thesis is thus positioned alongside the speculative transformation of Singapore’s ruin landscape to the ruins of Woodneuk across time, and to establish an interdisciplinary study of the built environment to the tropical landscape.
