Since its independence in 1965 the country of Singapore has used modern architecture to both define its identity and attract global business. Singapore, one of the Asia’s most vibrant cities, is home to some of the world’s best modern architecture. This, at least in part, is due to the government of Singapore actively promoting the construction of high quality modern buildings.

As the population of Singapore is drawn from many ethnic origins, and the island has been ruled by a succession of foreign powers, the country has struggled to find its identity since gaining independence in 1965. First the city’s banks and then the government have actively aimed to develop high-quality landmark buildings with the aim of not only defining a sense of national identity, but also to boosting business and tourism. For this reason the city is full of high quality architecture.
Read the rest of this entry »

Trellises have been a favorite landscape architectural element throughout the ages. Some serve as partial walls, screening off less desirable views, others to enframe a view. All of which support flowering plant material, usually varieties of vines. Trellises are formed into many shapes and sizes, different configurations to serve various needs: Overhead trellises create a ‘landscape room’ beneath while an arched trellis may serve as a ‘gateway’ into the garden itself. The focus of this article is upon the architectural-building material from which the trellis is constructed; it is not of wood, metal tubing or from expensive wrought iron.

When I was touring northern Italy and Spain I was struck by the timeless beauty of wrought-ironworks, fashioned out of the architecture of the buildings and into the garden trellises. It was not so much the ornate details that I found so interesting as I found the strength and durability of the material to be: it tested time, only growing more attractive. Later, back in the U.S.A. and practicing my profession as a Landscape Architect I found that wrought-iron was not often affordable except in only the most selective of projects (i.e. those with very, fat budgets). Read the rest of this entry »

Modern architecture, not to be confused with ‘contemporary architecture’, is a term given to a number of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament. While the style was conceived early in the 20th century and heavily promoted by a few architects, architectural educators and exhibits, very few Modern buildings were built in the first half of the century. For three decades after the Second World War, however, it became the dominant architectural style for institutional and corporate building.

The exact characteristics and origins of Modern architecture are still open to interpretation and debate.

Some historians see the evolution of Modern architecture as a social matter, closely tied to the project of Modernity and hence to the Enlightenment, a result of social and political revolutions.
Read the rest of this entry »

The Romanesque

Italy’s Romanesque architecture (12th cent.) reveals the first use of the groined vault with projecting ribs. It is also typified by the development of a type of basilica having side galleries. The style was especially pronounced in Lombardy and is superbly exemplified in Sant’ Ambrogio, Milan. There are two regional forms of Italian Romanesque—Tuscan (including Florentine) and southern. The cathedral of Pisa (1063-1118), with its campanile (the “leaning tower” ), admirably displays the Tuscan characteristics, chief of which is the decorative use of tier upon tier of columns. Tuscan architects of the period also made a specialty of using variegated marbles and followed the antique style in this rather closely. The Romanesque of the south, as in the cathedral of Monreale, is characterized by its rich mosaics and delicate carvings, which show Byzantine, Saracenic, and Norman influences.

Read the rest of this entry »

Modern day technology allows for a more complex design when creating the patterns of geometrical shapes that are used for the production of buildings. In the present day the modern perspective leaves a lot of consideration out of the process, with the design of buildings in common areas of living. In retrospect the schooling of an institutional system, had no windows, in the original part of the school, for natural sunlight to enter into the classes, or hallways. This reflection goes into the structures of the modern day civilized areas, of the economically focused on construction of buildings, to not have the natural habitat of nature, present. The comparison is dependent on the view of what is considered important.

There is a connection from the classical days of the design of building to the modern day style. In the overall decision of the design, the whole inside to the outer accessibility area to include common, modern day, and casual access, but in timed sequenced. Making available the areas of use for whatever purpose chosen, in the designated parts of the building. This accessibility includes the population of the area surrounding the building; availability of such a resource is a step towards combining a highly technological possibility, with a social aspect. By integrating and applying a technological implementation, to include a larger mass of people, is in need of the insights of the many different degrees of intuitional thinking. A process that should, as a principal include the natural light of the sun, as a devised source of the natural habitual construction of the design.
Read the rest of this entry »