Documentation Project: PULAU UBIN LIVES: THE DOCUMENTATION OF WOODEN VERNACULAR HOUSES AND SETTLEMENT HISTORIES
Located off the northeastern coast of Singapore, Pulau Ubin is the second largest offshore island within the city-state’s territorial waters and is the last remaining one with a sizeable rural resident population. The vicissitudes of its cultural landscape reflect Singapore’s changing policies towards her offshore islands. From the late 19th century to the 1970s Pulau Ubin, like a number of Singapore’s other offshore islands, was home to thriving communities to whom the state extended the provision of social services and physical infrastructure. At its peak, the island hosted a resident population of over 2,000 people. However, the last two decades of the 20th century witnessed a period of evictions, the uprooting of entire communities, and the withdrawal of various amenities. Today, with a resident population of less than 40, the island is promoted as an eco-tourism destination with an emphasis on maintaining its “rustic” character, and is placed under the management of a board in charge of Singapore’s parks and forests, National Parks Board (NParks).
Originally, the island’s cultural and settlement histories, its remaining residents and their needs, as well as the present condition of their historical wooden vernacular dwellings received little attention. However more recently, these have come under the ambit of more wide-ranging efforts to produce Pulau Ubin as a rustic destination.
Through the documentation of four Malay houses in Kampong Sungei Durian and Kampong Surau in eastern Pulau Ubin in particular, based on original fieldwork, the heritage of the Malay community, a minority group in Singapore whose story on Pulau Ubin have hitherto not been given sufficient attention, is also foregrounded. This documentation also records the stories of the Malay residents, the histories and characteristics their houses and settlements, and the frameworks for their conservation, restoration, and documentation.
The wix site documents a 2021 installation “Pulau Ubin Lives”, created for the Singapore Pavilion for Venice Architecture Biennale. The installation explores the current possibilities presented by the change in policy. The proposed restoration of four wooden Malay houses on Pulau Ubin presents a new frontier in architectural and landscape conservation in Singapore, reflecting NParks’ widened scope in its management of Pulau Ubin. The recent change in status for Pulau Ubin’s rural landscape from an ambiguous position to its recognition as valuable resource, meanwhile, translates into the inclusion of living social and cultural landscapes and vernacular architectural structures as integral to the value of nature conservation management.
Houses on Pulau Ubin have functioned as gathering spaces and played active roles for interaction and dialogue across diverse sections of society through events held in connection with Pulau Ubin’s special character as Singapore’s offshore island. This installation showcases some of these Malay houses as firstly, objects of interest in themselves, and secondly as sites of the exchange of knowledge and community interaction through a number of activities hosted by the houses, namely as places of inter-generational learning and of engagement with cultural knowledge of nature and plants for cooking.
Click on the link below to view the report:
https://pulauubinlives.wixsite.com/home/pulau-ubin
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