ARCHITECTURE//
The architectural remains of war tell the story of time and different forms of the preservation of memories. By tracking these locations down and exploring them, I begin to uncover the buried footprints of war and terrorism that shape or have been shaped by society through time.
These pieces of war architecture have been left to weather, preserved, lost and found, forgotten or modified with time. Individual case studies take a look at how time has affected our perception of them and how past wars are currently being portrayed or identified in the present through interactions with them.
Sound Mirrors
(UK)
Between WWI and WWII, sound Mirrors(or acoustic mirrors) were used experimentally in England to act as warning systems for incoming air strikes. However, the construction of these massive structures were stopped upon the invention of the modern radar. The experimental nature of these structures can be observed through the different sizes built. They function as amplifiers which requires a microphone to be placed at the base to further amplify sounds.
Despite their grand appearance, they had limited effectiveness as the technology of air travel rapidly improved between wars and the planes would be too close to respond to upon detection. The WWI sound Mirrors did give the British a better understanding of radar technology to pinpoint locations that they later used to develop radar technology.
Kilnsea Mark Dyson, March 2003.
Modern Uses
This wartime architectural technology exist in modern reality as commonly seen satellite dishes used to amplify radio waves for receivers, known as parabolic Mirrors.
The transition between wartime architectural experiments to seeing “relics” of the past in modern life is interesting as in a way, design normalized these large imposing structures to become an inconsequential technological structure in everyday life.
Forts
(Singapore)
A look into the architecture of forts left from WWII in modern day. This is a curation of fort locations found in Singapore built in accordance to British army standards during the WWII Japanese occupation. They have been selected to study the different ways the perception of war architecture have changed over the years and how their identities have morphed through time.
Type 25 Pillbox, December 23, 2012, Pillbox Study Group
Pillbox Forts
“This pill-box was the only piece of good cover in the whole battalion area. Imagine a small room ten feet square and six feet high with walls of thick rough concrete. there is only one opening, the door, over which a waterproof sheet is draped”
- A Subaltern`s War, Edmonds, Charles p171
Minimum of Bullet/Splinter Proof protection
No attempt was made to provide living accommodation
Some designs were enhanced to Shell Proof standard
Simple Blast Walls to protect open entrances
External flat side walls with rectangular or polygonal shape
This part of the research is about defensive architecture in their various forms from physical defences to acts of rebellion through different periods of warfare to look at how regular spaces and objects are modified symbolically or practically to incorporate perceptions of war.
Defenses
(Singapore)
The Lion Raw Stairs June 24, 2015
POW Stairs
Singapore, Botanical Gardens
Located in the UNESCO heritage site, Botanic Gardens Singapore, stands a flight of stairs paved with bricks marked with arrows.
When the Japanese occupied Singapore in 1942, they took over the botanic gardens and added architectural elements to it which were constructed by prisoners of war.
“By marking the bricks with arrows associated with government property, the prisoners, who were probably considered the ‘property’ of their jailers, may have acted in subtle defiance. Their Japanese captors were likely not aware of the meaning of the arrows, and if discovered, the prisoners would probably have been punished severely. Today, the arrows serve as a reminder of their bravery at a time of great hardship.”
Void Deck, Bukit Batok Singapore, 16/04/2018
Void Decks*
Singapore, Government Housing
Void decks are spaces unique to Singapore that are located under government public housing apartments that function as social areas, usually for residents of that area. You can usually find activity centers, childcares, tables to sit around where you can interact with neighbors and friends.
Additionally, weddings and funerals as well as other events can be held there with permission from the local council.
Tiong Bahru, 16/04/2018
Hidden Messages
A series of snapshots documenting details written or hidden in architecture that reveal untold stories of the space. While many instances cannot be explained, it gives us insight on what the space might have been used for or when it was accessed.
Following a local thread online about hidden war architecture, I came across an area that is said to house many hidden treasures that are hard to find.
These underground bunkers have been buried and lost in time with little left uncovered. The only indications of hidden architecture in forms of chimneys and protruding mounds in the ground. Old concrete forts are hidden under giant trees. Without further observation it might just pass off as a regular park or forest. I thought it would be interesting to investigate the relationship nature and time has with these pieces of war architecture and uncover places you cannot find online.
Hidden
Architecture
(Singapore)
Sembawang Underground Bunker, 15/4/2018
Underground Bunkers
Singapore, Sembawang
Over the years, nature has been reclaiming these camouflaged architecture and it’s interesting how they will soon be swallowed up into the ground again and lost in time.
War (air raid) shelters in London are not as obviously located as in Singapore, neither are remaining shelters public knowledge. As a testament to this, I explored a relatively unknown shelter in the gym of Goldsmiths that nobody knew about. The structure seems to be unchanged since it was built with rusted metal and water seeping through some parts. There is also an abandoned tunnel in the wall that seems to connect to another building but has since been "sealed" with rubble.
Hidden
Architecture
(London)
Goldsmiths Air Raid Bunker, 02/05/2018
Perceiving
Architecture
During my visit to Greenwich Foot Tunnel, a tunnel running under the River Thames which people hid in during the World Wars, I experimented with portraying the same space in different perspectives, and how different images can create different perceptions of it.
