The following describes the content and conceptual framework for the installation “Pulau Ubin Lives” by Studio DO for The Singapore Pavilion at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition, La Biennale di Venezia.
The theme of the Singapore Pavilion 2020 in Venice is TO GATHER: The Architecture of Relationships.
The proposed restoration of four wooden Malay houses on Pulau Ubin, announced in 2019, 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’ rural landscape from a previously uncertain future 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 Ubin’s special character as Singapore’s offshore island. The inclusive regeneration for sustainability in Pulau Ubin’s landscape encompasses several aspects, from the most tangible to the abstract:
- Materiality/environments: Wooden construction and wooden joints, hitherto excluded in building codes, and the complexity of spaces and typological permutations in the wooden kampung house;
- Inclusion/connection: Settlements and communities as hosts of deeper engagements and more meaningful activities for wider networks in rural-cultural-nature tourism; and
- Singapore narrative extended: The position of the rural landscape within Singapore’s nation-building narrative, as well as its imagined future relevance
Kampung, essentially, denotes settlements, from the verb berkampung – coming together. The unspoken ancillary of this social aggregation is its unique form of integration into landscapes and its management of verdant kampung orchards, forests, and cultural knowledge of herbs and plants.
The project emphasises not only vernacular kampung houses’ building culture and socio-spatial complexity, but also its inseparability from its associated surroundings, as the setting for communities and for the creative initiatives of the residents in bringing people together through activities that engage values and knowledge. Pulau Ubin thus provides an opportunity to envision a plan for a living cultural landscape that encompasses not only flora and fauna, but also community, architecture, settlements, and socio-cultural histories.
Aspects in bold and italicised above would form the three key themes of the installation.
Key words: Kampung houses | rural environments | inclusion and connection | Singapore narrative extended
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