Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore: Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment

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Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment BRENDA S. A. YEOH Department of Geography National University of Singapore pii-Contesting Space.indd i pii-Contesting Space.indd i 2/19/13 4:58:31 PM 2/19/13 4:58:31 PM © Brenda S.A. Yeoh Published by: NUS Press National University of Singapore AS3-01-02, 3 Arts Link Singapore 117569 Fax: (65) 6774-0652 E-mail: nusbooks@nus.edu.sg Website: http://www.nus.edu.sg/nuspress Reprint 2013 ISBN 978-9971-69-268-1 (Paper) All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the Publisher. The first edition was published by Oxford University Press in 1996 and Singapore University Press in 2003. Printed by: Markono Print Media Pte Ltd piv-Contesting Space.indd ii piv-Contesting Space.indd ii 2/21/13 4:30:08 PM 2/21/13 4:30:08 PM For Andrew, in memory of our days at Oxford The architect who designs, the planner who draws up masterplans , see their ‘objects’, buildings and neighbourhoods, from on high and from afar…. They pass from the ‘lived’ to the abstract in order to project that abstraction onto the level of the lived. (Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, 1991) As for the populace, where they were not served by the city of capital and luxury, they reacted as best as they could, according to theirneeds,totheextentoftheirprovocation,andtotheimmediate circumstances of their everyday life. Between submission to the intolerable and outraged revolt against it, they somehow defined a human existence within the walls and along the passage of their streets. (Anthony Vidler, ‘The Scenes of the Street’, 1978) ...