Singapore has gone through an incredible transformative journey since 1965. When the British handed Singapore over to Malaysia in 1963, David Attenborough wasn't far wrong when he once described it as a ‘series of small tin sheds’ (The Telegraph, 2009). Since it's emancipation in 1965, the rural landscape has made way for a modern, cosmopolitan conurbation with a thriving economy (Tan, 2007).
Lee Kwan Yu, Singapore’s first Prime Minister, had a vision of a clean, safe and modern port city while encouraging free trade (Low, 2003). Despite its limited size and natural resources, he set out to make the country the dominant financial capital of Asia, pushing capitalist values while maintaining a strong state.
The Utopian Dream for the Little Red Dot
A quick introduction to Singapore’s modern history
Source: Building a New Singapore, Tom Hodge, 1960 - Courtesy of the National Archives of Singapore
To access the video click on the image, it will take you to the NAS website where you can view the video.
The video is a short documentary, talking about the slum housing crisis Singapore experienced, and how the government was going to build new communities through clever planning, creating family friendly estates where families were to be re-homed. It's almost in propaganda-style with cheery music in the background, and a very positive impression of the government focussed on the 'people'
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The multi-cultural populous mainly consists of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Peranakan, descendants of Chinese traders who settled in the busy ports of Malaysia around the 19th century (YourSingapore, 2016b). Flare ups during colonial times between squatters in kampongs (villages) led to the government vastly improving public housing and urban spaces to ensure racial harmony. Shatkin (2013) rightly described Singapore as “a model of urban planning under state capitalism”. To remain balanced between cultures, the official languages are Malay, Mandarin, Tamil and English from the original emancipation (Singapore Statutes Online, 1965), and the public holidays are divided up between Muslim, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist religious festivals to ensure equality (Kong, 2005).
From its original slum villages, the Housing Development Board (HDB) was set up to combat the housing crisis in 1960. Charged with building large scale housing for the growing multi-cultural population under the pressure of minimal land space, the only way was skywards or out to sea.
Singapore has constructed some of the world’s largest skyscrapers and embarked on major land reclamation projects, adding 23 percent to its total land area (WorldAtlas, 2016). Multi-storey buildings were erected, creating small, almost self-sufficient communities, in ‘towns’ around the country. In each HDB development, they also accommodated for recreational activities, social amenities and commercial entities, which included convenience stores and food centres (Housing & Development Board, [no date]).
Source: Kristen from Travel-Studies.com
On the left, Le Corbusier's vision for Radiant City, housing three million inhabitants in Paris, featuring high-rise buildings set within park-like green spaces, with services and facilities enclosed on the same estate. On the right is an HDB complex in Singapore. The overall design seems very similar in form to Le Corbusier's dream.
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This was similar in the urbanism style of Le Corbusier in the 1970s, which transformed Parisian slums into “contemporary cities” consisting of high-density towers providing an organised solution, which was technologically advanced and designed to increase the quality of life for residents (Jacobs, 2006). Similar to Le Corbusier, racial harmony was a key component of the philosophy and even building design to HDBs. An Ethnic Integration Policy was introduced in 1989, which allocates an ethnic quota for each HDB development, to ensure that there are no cultural enclaves established (HistorySG, [no date]).
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The Curry Incident
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This ethnic integration has been for the most part successful in Singapore, despite the occasional flare up. In 2005-2006, a new immigrant Chinese family living in an HDB complained about the smell of curry spices coming from his Indian neighbour’s apartment. Despite closing all of the windows and doors, there were still complaints, and it went before the Community Mediation Centre (CMC), where it was decided that the Indian family could only cook while the Chinese family were not around and that the Chinese family had to try the curry (Ho et al., 2013). The Chinese-majority in the community sided with their own, even telling immigrants to go back to their (original) homes. However, it also inspired some great community involvement, and a “Cook and Share a Pot of Curry” event on 21 August 2011, where over 60,000 residents participated, inviting local residents and new migrants to enjoy different international types of curry from Malaysia, Japan and India (Teng, 2016).