I’ve just realised that there were a few other things I did in Singapore that I haven’t mentioned, so this post will cover just two of them – the NUS Baba House, and Singapore City Gallery.
The NUS Baba House
The NUS Baba House is the sole surviving intact house from the Peranakan community. This isn’t the place to describe or define the Peranakan identity or culture – here’s a link to a Wikipedia page that does so. In Singapore the Peranakans emerged as merchants and traders and thus were at least reasonably wealthy, and with this wealth they built distinctive and high-quality houses. Almost all of these have either been demolished completely, or (once Singapore recognised the importance of preserving them) have been been preserved externally but gutted and modernised internally. The NUS Baba House is thought to be the only house that is preserved internally as well as externally. Visits have to be booked in advance, and there are only a limited number of places available.
The National University of Singapore (NUS – the owners and managers of there house) don’t allow photography inside the house so I don’t have any pictures to display. I will say however that it was beautiful and individual. The house, which has been conserved as it was in the 1920s, is narrow and deep – three rooms deep, plus a courtyard at the front.. The courtyard features an ornately decorated exterior – the image above shows this. Then you go through the door and enter the front parlour. This was where the merchant did business, entertained guests, clients and customers, and where receptions were held. It’s furnished in a business-like but quality way – there are lots of high-quality paintings and decorations. This was the space in which an impression would be made! At the back of this room is a screen, and behind that is a living space, much more domestic in feel – still luxurious but more comfortable. For a visitor to be invited beyond the business area into the living area would be a mark of either real friendship or possibly deep respect. it’s also the case that the screen was not solid, so someone – the merchant’s wife, perhaps? – could sit behind the screen and listen to the business conversations while remaining hidden. Behind this living space was the kitchen. Upstairs were either two or three bedrooms, all furnished beautifully. One was very traditional, another was furnished in a modern style – as in 1924!
The most curious feature of the house was ventilation system. When the house was built there was no air-conditioning so alternative ventilation methods had to be used. Therefore a significant part of the floor are of the living area, the space behind the business parlour, was actually open to the sky – I would say that this was perhaps 3 metres long by at least 1.5 metres wide. The floor of this area was tiled with a rim of tiles or bricks around it, there was some drainage, and in it were placed various pots with growing plants. This therefore admitted light, air, and when it was raining, significant quantities of water. (I learned on this trip that the annual rainfall in Singapore is approximately 4 times that of London, but whereas in London it either drizzles or rains gently for hours, in Singapore it rains torrentially for short bursts.) I wish I could have taken a picture of this feature, but alas it wasn’t possible.
Singapore City Gallery
I also visited the Singapore City Gallery. This is not an art gallery (which was my first supposition) but is a permanent exhibition area about the planning and development of modern Singapore. There are interactive displays everywhere which explain things such as the various planing decisions that were taken in areas such as housing, transport, and land reclamation, a display of old maps showing literally graphically how Singapore has changed, other interactive displays that explain the factors that need to be taken into account when planning decisions are made, and (most impressive of all) a huge model of the central part of Singapore. This was originally made some decades ago, and as plans come to fruition and developments are completed the model is updated. It’s very impressive. I also enjoyed the bookshop which had a number of titles giving detailed information about specific topics. I bought two of these. One (‘A River Transformed’) is about the cleanup of the Singapore River and development of Marina Bay – I hadn’t realised until this visit that Marina Bay is in fact a reservoir. The second (‘Vertical Garden City’) is about the growth of green architecture in Singapore; that is, integrating plants with new developments. The image above is of one of the developments featured in the book. I really enjoyed this visit – with an emphasis on planning, development, maps and books it was, as several members of my family said, ‘right up my street’.
I was pleased I went to these two places. The Baba house is well-known but the City Gallery is not on the tourist trail at all. However, even the Peranakan House is not visited by many people – the limitation on numbers sees to that. (There is also a Peranakan Museum, but it’s closed currently, and possibly until sometime in 2020.) Visiting these places fitted in well with my aim for this trip, of going to places that I hadn’t visited before. Coming away from both of them I felt that I had learned things about Singapore that I hadn’t known before.
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