The Sanction

Seeing the bureaucracy in the state of Singapore as being contradictory to their own statements of democracy and regime, the proposed design aims to capture a more truthful representation of a government building that houses a Ministry of Manpower Service Centre. Humanistic architectural features that signify openness, hospitality and freedom which are common to many statuary buildings in Singapore are rejected while making the act of subjection a spectacle. The postulated Jurong East CBD is envisioned as a future gateway for the influx of migrant workers.

Hence, The Sanction seeks to awaken the false consciousness of hopeful migrant workers who perceive Singapore as a wonderful place and even signal a bleak Singapore future that has been consistently subjected to a mirage of false impressions to justify the mildly oppressive nature of the state. Through acts of dehumanisation, the chaotic that births forth from rituals of subjection (derived from current practices MOM service centres), layered programmatic layouts of varying porosities and manipulation of the dense existing master plan girder structure system (proposed in the previous semester), the project represents a critical cynicism towards the architecture of government buildings that the state endorses.