wHAT SHOULD BE ALLOwED ON LAND? (IN A NATION THAT IS SUPPOSEDLY “LAND ScARcE”?)

Land is precious – because we have so little of it.

In Singapore, every piece of land is designed to the tiniest detail to ensure maximum efficiency. Yet, out of the 50% of land that we have used up, 4% is spent on 19 golf courses which serves only 0.9% of the population. Since land is so precious, what should be allowed on it?

What happens if we flip them into the sea? What happens if we stack them up and squeeze them into areas a sixth of their existing area? What happens if we have HDB golfs towers…

In Singapore, the built environment is systematically cleaned, maintained and replaced as a form of resistance towards tropical forces of decay. Aquatic infrastructure is implemented primarily to resist climatic conditions, i.e. to control or overcome tropical forces such as rain and floodwater for short periods and divert its forces into the sea through high-speed evacuation. This “architecture of leaks” operates like a form of parasitic-growth that aggressively alters landscape and cityscape alike, creating a network of infrastructural territory that is untouched by any other form.

This thesis is rooted in studying leaks, and struggles to understand the peculiar relationship between architecture, infrastructure and weather. By bringing leaks to the foreground, it questions architecture’s supposed opposition to weather (that has often been used to define it) and critiques the static notion that the infiltration of weather is seen as a sign of failure.