Sebastian Ernst
German architect Sebastian Ernst's research project into Singapore podium-tower blocks landed in our inbox as a series of enigmatic photographs and Lego-esque drawings. These snapshots of familiar Singaporean edificies often employed the same angles and curious bleached palette. Peering at them, as well as their reductions to icon on a numbered chart (below), is to experience both a defamiliarisation of landscape and nostalgic time travel - to a past where brave new worlds of living, organic, infinitely multiplying structures were the future. Ernst studied these buildings in the context of the Metabolist movement of the 1960s and '70s, with its roots in a post-World War II Japan seeking to rebuild itself with a modular, mutant quality that could adapt quickly through time. At the same time, he also took as reference the documentary photography work of German duo Bernd and Hilla Becher, known for their grid-based typology of disappearing German industrial architecture circa 1960, for these images. The result is a kind of collision of imaginations: of Japanese adaptation and German preservation; of shiny Asian metropolis, and creaky European steel and mining town; of a pioneer generation's concrete dreams and aspirations, standing (for now) firm in the face of relentless urban renewal.
- The Editors
- The Editors
Architect's statement
"The Metropolis strives to reach a mythical point where the world is completely fabricated by man, so that it absolutely coincides with his desires." - Rem Koolhaas, Delirious New York, 1978
"I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens... Had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse: that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think." - Lee Kuan Yew, The Straits Times, 1987
Due to an exchange curriculum, I arrived in Singapore with outlines of topics rooted in my previous studies, such as typology and archetype, as well as a fascination for the "city in a building" aspect of large-scale developments, which were so different from the context I grew up in.
Over a period of more than a year, I researched and analysed, depicted and x-rayed history, social and economic aspects, as well as the buildings themselves. These now fragile and nearly hidden remains of Singapore's utopian days are characterised by density, flexibilty, and intensity of complex social and spatial arrangements. Their open public spaces range from hallways to markets, to homes for the elderly and kindergartens on rooftops. They held tech firms to beauty salons. This research formed the basis for my book, Singapore Typology.
These building were, and still are, harsh and extreme, monumental and controversial. Yet, they are also strongly idealistic and powerful. In my eyes, they are unmatched by today's iconoclastic glass towers, high-tech and sterile. They are built figures of urban identity and the egalitarian philosophy of Lee Kuan Yew, remaining from that short time span: the beginning of the modern period of Singapore.
Like experiments with an uncertain outcome, they remain fascinating social and constructive worlds.
"I am often accused of interfering in the private lives of citizens... Had I not done that, we wouldn't be here today. And I say without the slightest remorse: that we wouldn't be here, we would not have made economic progress if we had not intervened on very personal matters - who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think." - Lee Kuan Yew, The Straits Times, 1987
Due to an exchange curriculum, I arrived in Singapore with outlines of topics rooted in my previous studies, such as typology and archetype, as well as a fascination for the "city in a building" aspect of large-scale developments, which were so different from the context I grew up in.
Over a period of more than a year, I researched and analysed, depicted and x-rayed history, social and economic aspects, as well as the buildings themselves. These now fragile and nearly hidden remains of Singapore's utopian days are characterised by density, flexibilty, and intensity of complex social and spatial arrangements. Their open public spaces range from hallways to markets, to homes for the elderly and kindergartens on rooftops. They held tech firms to beauty salons. This research formed the basis for my book, Singapore Typology.
These building were, and still are, harsh and extreme, monumental and controversial. Yet, they are also strongly idealistic and powerful. In my eyes, they are unmatched by today's iconoclastic glass towers, high-tech and sterile. They are built figures of urban identity and the egalitarian philosophy of Lee Kuan Yew, remaining from that short time span: the beginning of the modern period of Singapore.
Like experiments with an uncertain outcome, they remain fascinating social and constructive worlds.
Sebastian Ernst, born in Berlin, studied architecture at the TU Berlin and at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich). After working at Berlin-based architectural office Barkow Leibinger, he freelanced for several firms. A former researcher at Future Cities Laboratory in Singapore, a trans-disciplinary research institute focused on sustainable urban development, he wrote his Master's thesis, "Made in Singapore", on Singapore podium tower projects from the 1960s-70s metabolist-influenced era. From 2013 to 2015, he worked as a researcher at the chair of Gramazio and Kohler, at ETH Zurich. Currently, he is realising projects with his own architectural practice FAKT in Berlin.
