From Beijing, Seoul to Berlin and Rome, the building of both old historical monuments and newer ones that have sparked controversy offers lessons for Singapore’s Founders’ Memorial, highlights SUTD’s Calvin Chua.
SINGAPORE: With plans for the construction of a Founders’ Memorial in Bay East Gardens to commemorate the pioneer generation of leaders in Singapore, it is perhaps timely to look at the evolution of monuments and extract lessons from them.
I can still remember my experience of the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, which was disorientating to say the least.
Designed as a field of large concrete slabs with varying heights spread over an area of 19,000 sq m, as one walks through its maze-like environment, a growing feeling of isolation pervades, as concrete slabs block out sight of other visitors. A sense of foreboding also creeps up, as visitors struggle slightly to find each other and leave the memorial.
Intentionally conceived as a large public space in the heart of the city, the scale of the memorial and the harrowing experience it puts visitors through reinforces its effect and significance.
Yet, despite the experience it puts on visitors, the memorial is also fraught with controversies. The lack of explanation of the meaning of the concrete slabs and the lighthearted treatment of the memorial as a hide-and-seek and parkour play space has sparked public criticism.
While there are many interpretations of what it seeks to achieve and why, the Holocaust Memorial notably breaks away from a monument being a mere symbolic standalone statue.
Monuments are pieces of architecture, structures that represent the history, culture or values of a specific group of people, whereas a memorial is a purpose-built commemorative structure.
Compared to a heritage structure, where its monument status is conferred to it over time as a result of its historical and cultural significance, it may be challenging for purpose-built monuments to attain cultural relevance immediately and justify the required investment for construction.
However, as the Holocaust Memorial illustrates, despite its controversies, the effect of a monument can be significant if it is embedded within the fabric of the city and is part of everyday life.
The experience it creates for visitors is just one of the many ways a monument can move beyond being a mere physical structure.
LESSONS FROM ROME
One of the first examples of monuments integrated within everyday spaces in the city can be found in Rome during the papacy of Pope Sixtus V in the 1500s. Prior to the reign of Sixtus V, there were no proper public spaces or streets in Rome and monuments were randomly sited with no spatial relationship to each other.
Although urban improvements were made to the city before that, they were largely piecemeal and uncoordinated compared to the impact of Sixtus V’s reforms.
Within five years of Sixtus V’s leadership, the entire city was completely transformed — monuments were used as a way of organising the city.
