It is a study of how the new nation of Singapore defined itself and built its reputation, with architecture as a tool. With a particular focus on the public housing system in Singapore (HDB) and its relationship to racial identity. 


Singapore was a country with independence thrust upon it, to paraphrase the first Prime Minister and father of the nation, Lee Kuan Yew. It then managed to transform a landscape of slum living into the bio-futuristic international business haven it is perceived as today on the global stage.

The essay describes the intentionality of various architectural and behavioural policies that helped generate this image, while also critiquing some of the sacrifices that had to be made along the way. It tells this story through four chapters operating at different scales: the UN scale, the Prime Minister scale, the HDB scale, and the People scale. There is also a focus on the Ethnic Integration Policy and whether it is ethical to set racial quotas for housing in order to encourage integration, and furthermore how this manifests organically and socially within the architecture.