Rasa-Tabula-rasa: An Infrastructural Approach to Conservation

Abstract

Rasa (Malay): A sensation, an essence Tabula (Latin): A table Tabula-rasa (Latin): A blank slate Rasa-Tabula-rasa juxtaposes the Malay word rasa with the Latin tabula-rasa. This wordplay confronts Singapore's pervasive demolish-and-rebuild methodology, where entire neighborhoods are erased, displacing not merely structures but the familiar collective memories that constitute the genius loci. This thesis negotiates that genius loci via Singapore's HDB public housing typology, a vernacular architecture deeply embedded in the nation's cultural, climatic, and social fabric. Sited at 32 New Market Rd, a soon-to-be-demolished 99-year leasehold block, the project proposes conservation and densification as alternatives to tabula rasa erasure. By tipping the lateral precinct-neighborhood-town tripartite scales of urban planning in Singapore vertically, it examines the interplay between life within a building and in the city. It employs an infrastructural approach that retains elements relevant and endemic to the community: hawker stalls, neighborhood shops, gathering spaces, and panoramic views. These become frameworks for new habitation, forming a palimpsest of living scales, adjacencies, and travel sequences. The thesis challenges Singapore's planning paradigm on two fronts: the notion of building obsolescence embedded within 99-year leaseholds, and the escalating density exemplified by integrated developments like Our Tampines Hub and Heartbeat@Bedok. In response, it argues that conservation should operate through temporal continuity - the persistent unfolding of human activities, memories, and meanings, rather than through frozen typologies. Architecture becomes a tabula infrastructure: porous, interchangeable, and enduring, allowing the lived experience of place to persist across generations and thereby defining architectural form and identity.