Land, much like relationships are formed upon intertwined pasts tied to the people who have inhabited and nurtured it. As Singapore continues to rewrite its landscape, can spaces be reimagined, when the act of mapping begins to insinuate beyond rigid boundaries demarcated through conventional systematic parcellation?
Daily life often exists within grey areas; therefore, the project reimagines ownership models within the context of Kampong Lorong Buangkok, a plot of privately owned land, at risk of government acquisition. Introducing new communities to the land then complicates it, where the government would struggle to navigate its social fabric, however, results in conflict. Through these frictions, new means of carving boundaries are formed, highly contextual to the land, claiming spaces through a layered patchwork system, rooted in the ritual. These rituals in-turn impact the visual language of the land, becoming a part of everyday ritual.
Even the most private spaces exist within public ones, rather than symbols of separation, ​such contextual thresholds open new doors toward fluid, relational ownership models that can evolve through negotiation and a celebration of conflict, humanising policy and design to accommodate blurred boundaries. Questions can be posed as we see ownership through a different lens, beyond the law, beyond clearly defined boundaries of possession.