Present and Past Spaces

A couple of trains of thought have been converging in my mind the last few days.  I am reading the book Emergence, by Steven Johnson, which discusses complex, distributed, and self-organizing systems – and using ant colony behavior, online communities, and city growth as illustrations.  Most interesting to me has been the discussion of cities, as it is related to my professional work, and to my personal interests in travel and places.

I also just moved to a new neighborhood in Singapore: Chinatown.  I moved here with the expressed goal of absorbing more local culture and exploring this historic place.  Chinatown is one of the oldest settlement areas of Singapore – going back to before the early 1800’s.  Many of the streets and buildings have remained relatively unchanged for centuries.  This part of Singapore has been at the heart of the development of this unique island-nation, and has witnessed all of the most fascinating aspects of Singapore’s diverse economy, diverse development, diverse populations, and diverse cultures.  It is an interesting place to ponder the self-organization and feedback loops that Steven Johnson discusses in his book.

Today I visited the Chinatown Heritage Centre, which gave me a fantastic perspective on life in Singapore from the eyes of the Chinese immigrants who came to this trading post in the 19th and 20th centuries.  The heritage centre is a great museum and well worth visiting.  It is housed in an old, three-story Chinese “shophouse”, with each room telling stories about different aspects of life in early Singapore.  Themes such as arrival from China, ethnicities, foods, vices, superstitions, and trades are well-displayed in rooms historically decorated with artefacts and photographs from the period.  I really felt transported walking through the dark shophouse interior, my feet walking along the wooden floors where so many people had lived and worked before.

The heritage centre made me think about all of the phases and trends that passed through this one spot on earth over the years.  How early streets were laid by Sir Stamford Raffles, the British founder of modern Singapore, and how buildings were erected over time and employed for different trades and uses.  Tailor shops, furniture makers, metal smiths, temples, restaurants, opium dens, brothels, theatres, coffin makers, tea houses… So many places to meet so many human needs.  All organized according to a mostly unconscious communal logic.  It got me thinking about where “we” have come from; what problems were addressed through which means throughout history; how much of city planning is from the top, and how much from below; and where are we ultimately going?  What new problems will we face in our “emergent cities”?

Then, returning home to my new flat in Chinatown, I spent some few minutes looking out over the city from the balcony outside.  I live now on the 21st floor of a building in the heart of Chinatown.  My balcony gives a great view looking south from Chinatown to the port and coast of the island.  The photo here is a panorama of the view from my balcony.  I’ve lived in Singapore for over 3 years now and I know many, many places.  This high viewpoint in the city centre really impressed me as illustrating both the geography of Singapore and my time in this city.  From this photo, I can see to the far right the areas of Tiong Bahru and Redhill, where I have very good friends that I visit often – from “up here” they are neighbors just next door.  Also to the right in the photo I can see the Singapore General Hospital and the large Police Station.  In the distance on the right, I can see Harbourfront Centre, Mount Faber, and the cable car to Sentosa Island. These are familiar sights to me from my office during my first two years in Singapore.  To the left of the photo, I see the Tanjong Pagar area, where there are many new cafes and boutique shops.  I also have some good friends who live over there.

Anyway, this post is getting a bit nostalgic and philosophical… but I want to convey the beauty and interest of spending some time to think about the Place where you live.  Its obvious street level “geography”.  And its 21st story geography.  Its hundred year, two hundred year, three hundred year history.  And all of the other people who walk through it thinking and working and eating and living each day.  There is a magic to all of this that we often take for granted.