February 6, 2018

What do housing estates in Singapore tell us about our cultural identity?

The urban infrastructure of a city can be constructed of class, cultural and ethnic differences. In the case of Singapore, these differences are stitched together and even layered over by factors such as multi-culturalism, high-density living, and the intervention of various government agencies and policies. Professor Robbie Goh (Department of ELL) describes Singapore as a ‘DialogiCity’ – a city where the urban infrastructure and development consists of multiple voices that are deeply engaged with the continuous discourse of the city-state’s cultural and national identity in the chapter ‘Things to a Void: Identity Politics and the Poetics of Communal Spaces’ of his book, Contours of Culture: Space and Social Difference in Singapore. In this light, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) blocks which have asserted their omnipresence throughout Singapore since the founding of HDB on 1 February 1960 are a fascinating example of this link between urban landscapes and cultural identities.
To many, the void deck is but a barren space at the foot of every HDB block, a functional entryway to elevators, staircases, and mailboxes. Yet in ‘Things to a Void: Identity Politics and the Poetics of Communal Spaces’, Goh sees the void deck as emblematic of Singapore’s approach to multiculturalism. Goh outlines how, by stripping the void deck of any specific cultural references, multicultural community bonding in Singapore is done in a neutralized space, ridding it of the potential for racially or culturally based conflicts.
In addition, the architectural style of housing estates in Singapore gives insight into how culture and nation are constructed and perceived. Moreover, these and other spaces we inhabit are inherently involved in a larger and much more complicated discourse of identity formation.

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