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Oct 21, 2006 Sat
STI Home > ST Forum > Online Story
Oct 21, 2006
Designs for Sentosa's integrated resort represent two schools of thought
The integrated resort projects of architects Michael Graves and Frank Gehry for Sentosa present two prevailing architectural thoughts on opposite ends.
Mr Graves's project is grounded with the architecture of certainty lifted from the pages of history akin to Singapore's colonial architecture, from the solemn façade of the High Court to the pastel colours of the shop houses.
It is orderly and predictable, representing an era of architecture that fed on axisymmetric orders and formulas. It was an era of prescriptive, methodological and systematical architecture.
If this project is chosen for Sentosa, it reflects a sector of our society which is firmly grounded in the belief that we must adhere to our colonial traditions of law and order, Asian conformist values and respect for hierarchy.
Surely there is room for this type of architecture in other circumstances and locations.
A diametrically opposing proposition is Mr Gehry's architecture of the 'uncertain truth' which hinges upon notions of ambiguity and unpredictability. It also strives to seek the 'truth' which is enigmatic and unforeseeable.
The project evaporates into the atmosphere of the tropics and melts into the surrounding waters of the 'islands in the sun'. Metaphorically, nothing seems to be solid and there is no ground upon which one can stand firmly. Gravity seems to have ceased.
Each and every move is determined less by conceptualisation and more by perceptualising space. No 'remembrances of things past', no pages of history to lift, and the visual experience disturbs our sense of being to the fullest. As the senses and sight go on a rollercoaster, questions of where we belong and come from no longer apply.
Here we are not who we are but where we are at the moment. It has the qualities of destabilization and efflorescence urging us to fly with the music of 'Brazil'.
If there is an attempt to conceptualise this project, it may be simply 'existential'. This is the architecture of infinity of past as well as future as it truly represents the moment here and now.
If this project is chosen, it means that we have evolved from the cradle of certainty and are ready to take on whatever comes our way. It gambles on our state of being in ways that are beyond imagination.
Perhaps, the opposing bipolarity of the two projects may create an euphoria of 'complexity and contradictions' which is necessary and relevant to our ever-changing global city.
Oct 21, 2006 Sat
STI Home > ST Forum > Online Story
Oct 21, 2006
Designs for Sentosa's integrated resort represent two schools of thought
The integrated resort projects of architects Michael Graves and Frank Gehry for Sentosa present two prevailing architectural thoughts on opposite ends.
Mr Graves's project is grounded with the architecture of certainty lifted from the pages of history akin to Singapore's colonial architecture, from the solemn façade of the High Court to the pastel colours of the shop houses.
It is orderly and predictable, representing an era of architecture that fed on axisymmetric orders and formulas. It was an era of prescriptive, methodological and systematical architecture.
If this project is chosen for Sentosa, it reflects a sector of our society which is firmly grounded in the belief that we must adhere to our colonial traditions of law and order, Asian conformist values and respect for hierarchy.
Surely there is room for this type of architecture in other circumstances and locations.
A diametrically opposing proposition is Mr Gehry's architecture of the 'uncertain truth' which hinges upon notions of ambiguity and unpredictability. It also strives to seek the 'truth' which is enigmatic and unforeseeable.
The project evaporates into the atmosphere of the tropics and melts into the surrounding waters of the 'islands in the sun'. Metaphorically, nothing seems to be solid and there is no ground upon which one can stand firmly. Gravity seems to have ceased.
Each and every move is determined less by conceptualisation and more by perceptualising space. No 'remembrances of things past', no pages of history to lift, and the visual experience disturbs our sense of being to the fullest. As the senses and sight go on a rollercoaster, questions of where we belong and come from no longer apply.
Here we are not who we are but where we are at the moment. It has the qualities of destabilization and efflorescence urging us to fly with the music of 'Brazil'.
If there is an attempt to conceptualise this project, it may be simply 'existential'. This is the architecture of infinity of past as well as future as it truly represents the moment here and now.
If this project is chosen, it means that we have evolved from the cradle of certainty and are ready to take on whatever comes our way. It gambles on our state of being in ways that are beyond imagination.
Perhaps, the opposing bipolarity of the two projects may create an euphoria of 'complexity and contradictions' which is necessary and relevant to our ever-changing global city.
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