KOREA FOUNDATION

Life in ASEAN 

Making the biggest versions of the world’s best things: 

The vitality of Singapore as seen in its contemporary architecture 

By Lee Bong-ryul
(OhMyNews reporter, author of the online series “Lee Bong-ryul in Singapore”)

Singapore is a major tourist hub, with approximately 20 million tourists seeking out the sovereign city-state each year. Southeast Asian countries, like Indonesia (Bali) and Viet Nam (Halong Bay), use their pristine natural environment to attract tourists, while others like Myanmar (Bagan) and Cambodia (Angkor Wat) capitalize on the rich histories of their religious heritages. This begs the question of how Singapore, a small island with soil that is largely barren and does not have much with which to define itself—despite being located in Southeast Asia—because of its short history, was able to become such a sought-out tourist destination. The strategy Singapore selected to grab tourists’ attention was to create things that can be classified as the best in the world in artificially-made, elegant cities with impeccable public order where no one has to worry about being pick-pocketed. 

   Singapore is home to the Fountain of Wealth, which was listed in the 1998 Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s largest fountain (at the time of construction). After word spread that one will become rich after circling the fountain’s center three times, most tourists to Singapore start their trip with a visit to it. Singapore Changi Airport is the site of the world’s largest indoor artificial waterfall. Gardens by the Bay, made famous by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s visit, is an artificial park that looks like a jungle scene from the movie Avatar and houses the world’s largest greenhouse botanical garden. 

   Marina Bay Sands, a hotel-casino resort that is familiar to Koreans for being constructed by Ssangyong Engineering & Construction, has an unconventional appearance (looking like a ship supported by three pillars) that makes it one of Singapore’s most well-known buildings. The top of the hotel is the location of the world’s highest swimming pool. As such, Singapore takes great pains to gain as many “world’s largest” and “world’s best” titles as possible by constantly creating things like aquariums and the Singapore Flyer (a giant public observation wheel).

    Recently, Singapore added another building to its collection that makes it even more special: a floating Apple store. Apple is known to open stores in national hot-spots with a unique appearance, but this is the first time that a store was built to float on water. Located just in front of Marina Bay Sands—the “heart” of Singapore—there is no way that tourists can miss this very special Apple store. The floating Apple store has not yet officially opened for business but is already being aggressively introduced in prominent global media outlets (This article was written on September 4. The Apple store officially opened on September 10). 

   The concept of the floating building is not new in Singapore. The Louis Vuitton store, which is next to the above-mentioned Apple store, was water-bound as early as 2011. The Float at Marina Bay, which Singapore promotes as “the world’s most beautiful soccer field,” opened in 2007. The uniqueness of format is partly the result of the country’s construction policy, in which new buildings are refused a construction permit if their design is similar to an existing building. This means that each time a building is erected, it literally cannot help but use a new idea and design concept, which then garners the public’s attention. Esplanade-Theatres on the Bay, a performing arts center, resembles a half-sliced durian, the tropical fruit that is beloved throughout Singapore. 

   To make up for its inability to produce anything that is the world’s oldest, Singapore constantly beckons tourists by making the world’s largest, tallest, and newest curiosities. It is this tenacity that is responsible for the image of Singaporean architecture as elegant and one-of-a-kind.

This content of this article may differ from the editorial direction of the ASEAN Culture House Monthly.