Spaces Of The Dead

In a Singapore inundated with the clutter that urbanization brings, open spaces - wild and green, however transient are always ones to be celebrated. 

Open spaces such as this one on which a former cemetery, Bidadari once stood at Bartley Road/Upper Serangoon Road, are fast being lost to the tide of steel, glass and concrete from which they had served as a respite from - sanctuaries where a much needed sense of space otherwise missing in the clutter and crowds, can be found. 

Masjid Bidadari 

The cemetery was one of Singapore's largest and with burials taking place over six and the half decades from 1907 to 1972, contained as many as 147 000 graves of members across the communities and a mosque, Masjid Bidadari (demolished in 2007). 

Converted into a temporary park after the completion of exhumation in 2006, the grounds, even in its days in which the resting places of the departed decorated the landscape, has been a place to find peace in.

With its days now numbered - a recent announcement by the HDB on plans for its redevelopment as a housing estate has the first developments taking place by this year, there is not much time before the joy it now provides will be lost to the urban world it has for so long resisted. 

The plans put forward by the HDB do show some sensitivity to what the place might once have been or represented, with the cemetery and the greenery it provided not completely forgotten.

Besides the preservation of some of the cemetery's heritage, one promise that the development of the 93 ha. site holds is that a 10 ha. green space which will incorporate a man-made lake - said to be inspired by the famous lake which belong to the Alkaff Lake Gardens we now only see photographs of. 

Alkaff Lake Gardens

Despite it does create a very pleasant environment to live and play in, it will not provide what the space now provides.

Fast Fading Memories

One of the few places in present day Singapore that I am able to find myself at home in is the former Kampong Wak Hassan (now Sembawang Park) area along the northern coast. 

It is an area which has in the last two and a half decades, as with much (if not all) of Singapore, undergone a huge transformation and also one that is still being transformed. 

Despite the transformation; Kampong Wak Hassan now plays host to a new public housing estate, it is still a place in which Singapore we have forgotten about can still be found - at least for the time being. 

Image: National Archives Of Singapore; 1975

Image: National Archives Of Singapore; 1975

Kampong Wak Hassan is one of the last places left in which much of the past remains to be discovered. A past which perhaps with the planned future developments in the area, some for which preparations are already being made, is one which may soon be well forgotten. 

Kampong Wak Hassan and perhaps the coastline east of it is where some of the old world does seems to have been left behind including what may be one of the last stretches of natural beaches in Singapore, the old jetty and a seawall.

Kampong Wak Hassan is today, a world in which the charm of a forgotten old world missing from most of the redeveloped spaces on the island, can still be found. It is a world which has thus far, managed to remain free from the crowds and clutter which now seems to dominate almost all of the urban we now find around us. The area is one which had for a long while boasted of welcome pockets of greenery and un-manicured beauty. 

But all that I fear, is soon going to change. Kampong Wak Hassan for one is already in the midst of a 'renewal' which I feel will see it lose the character and charm which attracted me there since the days of my childhood as it becomes just another well manicured park cluttered with paraphernalia which Singapore really has to many of.

Voids That Filled Our Lives

It was in the second generation of the HDB flats in Yishun in the 90's that I grew up in. 

Then, many of the new residents were moving into HDB flats for the first time and were just coming to terms with the new reality of high-rising living.

Ground floor units - a common feature of blocks of HDB flats built up to the early 90's, as well as lower floor units were much sought-after many felt an unease living high-up. 

For those that had moved in from the kampungs, the confines of the new dwellings needed a fair amount of adjustment to. Where their previous dwellings might have seemed like a cold cemented common space. It was no surprise that ground floor units were particularly popular as they allowed a semblance of life as it might once have been - little plots of vegetables and the chickens running around at the back of the units were then quite a common sight. 

It was perhaps natural in the context of this, that common spaces became spaces for social interaction - opened doors, much as they had been a feature in the kampungs, made common corridors one such place. 

Beyond the corridors - there were also generous spaces that brought neighbours seeking an escape out of the confines of their new flats together. 

For the younger ones, the common spaces naturally became an extended playground during a time when the boisterous screams of children in such common spaces would have been tolerated a lot more than it would be today.

As a child - the world beyond the doorway besides being that extended play area, was a fascinating place. There was lots to observe - the comings and goings of itinerant vendors, salesmen, swill collectors, the Karung Guni Man and the opportunity to meet people who often looked and dresses differently. 

It was in interactions that took place in these spaces that many friendships were forged and where much of my extra-curricular educations was received. 

Common spaces and the successor to some of the original common spaces, the void deck, have certainly come a long way over the years - besides being called a void for the absence of housing units, there is no doubt that it is hardly a void - but  a common space that has evolved to one that fills the lives of the many residents who do use it.