On the materialities of air

Abstract

In the development of Singapore, the role of air—its materiality and commodification—remains strangely untheorised. Air is still regarded as a neutral or immaterial ether exerting little force in the shaping of urban and architectural form. This paper will argue, to the contrary, that air has long exerted an effect on Singapore. It has done so against the backdrop of a broad conceptual transformation, beginning in the late 19th century—being increasingly visualised and understood as ‘substance’ and calculated as a medium of economic externality. This process will be explored through three historical examples: Lee Kuan Yew’s belief in humidity as an obstacle to development; John Portman’s conceptualisation, at Marina Square, of thermal place-making and ‘teaser air’; and the recent crises of trans-boundary haze. The outcome, it will be proposed, has reinforced a pre-existing tendency towards the consolidation of interiorised and privatised urban blocks, at the expense of other approaches to public space in the city.