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Singapore’s Park System Master Planning pp 131–178Cite as

From Character and Visual Identity to Theme—Gardens: Design of Parks and Public Open Space in Postmodern Singapore

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Part of the book series: Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements ((ACHS))

Abstract

Following a postmodern trend, planners attempted to address the social and cultural challenges posed by the rapid and extensive post-war urban growth, by advocating a revival of contextualism and regionalism, as well as the use of vernacular and popular culture icons in urban design. Singapore’s parks and gardens were conceptualized as an island-wide ‘cultural system’ meant to construct place identity and ‘imageability’ in support of the larger picture of nation building realized through the welfare-state public housing policy. Parks’ design was thematized to reflect in various manner the state’s ‘multicultural theme’, used to redirect tourism marketing strategies and the sociopolitical constructions of an ‘imagined community’.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Landscape Architecture—College of Art and Architecture, University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

    Raffaella Sini

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  1. Raffaella Sini
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Sini, R. (2020). From Character and Visual Identity to Theme—Gardens: Design of Parks and Public Open Space in Postmodern Singapore. In: Singapore’s Park System Master Planning. Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6746-5_6

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