A STUDY OF THE HOMES OF SINGAPORE
Reported by G. E. MAGNAY, A.A.Dip., A.R.I.B.A. Assistant Planning Officer, Singapore Improvement Trust Photographs by Courtesy of the Singapore Public Relations Office.
On Saturday the 6th of January 1951 His Excellency the Governor of Singapore, Sir Franklin Gimson, K.C.M.G., opened an exhibition sponsored and organised by the Singapore Improvement Trust. assisted by the Department of Public Relations.
Basically intended to cover the Improvement Trust's work in Planning and Housing, and timed to coincide with the in- vestigations of the United Nations Tropical Housing Com- mission and of Sir George Pepler on his first visit as Town Planning Consultant to the Singapore Government, the exhibi- tion was expanded by the organising committee to include as many aspects of planning and building by public authorities as time and space allowed. The scope of the exhibition is reflected in the title "A Study of the Homes of Singapore"— and what at first appeared to be an ambitious experiment was justifled by the interest shown by members of the public in the affairs of their town.
The exhibition was held on the ground floor of the Victoria Memorial Hall, Singapore, which consists of a space of approxi- mately 100 feet by 50 feet by some 20 feet high. Two central rows of columns, five in each row, are reflected on the side and end walls by pilaster responds. The result is that the plan of the hall is divided into a grid of eighteen roughly square bays. The side and end bays were used as the "peram- bulatory," while the central four bays, between the ten free- standing columns, were used for talks and films. At one end of this central part was a small dais used for the film projec- tion apparatus, and at the other end was a larger dais used by speakers
The display space on each of the side walls consisted of a fibre baa:d parel, one hundred feet long and four feet deep. from 2'9" to $′9′′ above floor level. This was illuminated by lighting concealed in a masonite pelmet fixed to the top of the panel.
The display space on the rear wall and the screen behind the speakers' dais consisted of movable exhibition stands of conventional design. These were arranged so as to reflect the method of continuous presentation used on the side walls. The area between the rear wall and the dais sereen was specially floodlit to illuminate adequately such models as were able to be produced in the very limited time at the disposal of the organisers.
On entering the exhibition hall the visitor saw the first of the first of the hundred feet long panels. The display com- menced with an aerial photograph of approximately one square mile of old property adjoining the waterfront. By a simple presentation of ideas, the visitor was initiated into the prin- ciples underlying the contemporary planning approach, and then by stages was shown what steps had already been taken to ascertain the needs of the people of that area, what basic plans had already been produced and was finally shown by means of an axonometric sketch how the area covered by the aerial mosaic could be redeveloped.
That this was no idle dream was emphasised by the second part of the exhibition, which was devoted to work carried out
Taken in the heart of the city, this photograph shows the conditions against which the work of the Singapore Improvement Trust is aimed.
Tupical of the blocks of flats being erected by the Singapore Improvement Trust.
by the Government Architect and the Municipal Architect. Plans, perspective sketches, models and photographs of recent proposals. approvals and completions of various public build- ings, schools, clinics, playing fields, parks, swimming pools, markets. community centres and industrial buildings showed the public the extent and volume of the work of these depart-
ments.
The last section of the exhibition, and probably the most interesting to the majority of the huuse-starved population of Singapore, was the study of the problems of providing houses. This section occupied the second 100 feet long display space and consisted of a series of panels depicting housing-past, present and future. Commencing with a statement of existing conditions, accompanied by a selection of genuinely typical photographs of the dirt and squalor to be found all over the older parts of the town, the visitor was led on to a presenta- tion of the present position, the extent to which the Improve- ment Trust has been able to tackle the question of rehousing and the future outlock. This panel closed with this state- ment:
"The Trust hopes to increase its output from 1091 dwellings in 1950 to 2650 dwellings in 1951 and to maintain this output in succeeding years. At this rate it would take twenty-five years to overcome the housing shortage within the Municipality if the population did not increase. Only then would it be possible to tackle the second phase of the housing problem, namely to replace the dilapidated and sub-standard housing which abounds in this city." Then followed plans, photographs and descriptions of each type of dwelling now being built by the Trust, from single- storey prefabricated artizans quarters to three and four- storeyed flats. In order that the public might be better enabled to understand the factors involved in considering horizontal or vertical development, there was then a series of eighteen axonometric construction drawings showing details of foundations. walls and floors, and roofs, for six types of dwelling, ranging from palm-thatched huts to multi-storeyed blocks of Aats.
The last section of all consisted of a presentation of various proposals for meeting in part the housing needs of the people of Singapore. Here the public saw examples of the proposals now under consideration for the construction of dwellings of all kinds by the Trust, by the Municipal Architect's Depart- ment. by the P.W.D. Government Architect's Branch, by Housing Societies, and by individual firms of architects and engineers.
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