Back to Beyond

A first time visitor’s time in Singapore is spent bouncing around between the somewhat old and the very new. The so-called Colonial District in the very centre has some older buildings, but most of the place still has that new car smell. The subways are extensive, modern and gleaming. There is thicket of tall towers that at least attempt to do something architecturally interesting. And, amid the order, there is a surprising amount of whimsy, with gratuitously fanciful shapes and structures performing both necessary and purely decorative functions.

This side of Singapore seems to be the opposite face of the Little India or Chinatown coin. And the dominant face. Whether the frivolousness of Gardens by the Bay, or the sturdy propriety of the bank towers, the message here is “new”.