Marina Bay Sands, The Image Of Our City

II Marina Bay, our Photogenic city.

1 Marina Bay Sands, the ‘Image of Our City’

In the book by Kevin Lynch, “The Image of the City”, he argued that the idea of imageability is an important character in the construction of the identity of a place. Subsequently, the creation of the mental image of the viewer. He pointed out that elements such as shapes, colours and arrangements play a crucial role in the legibility and visibility of a city which would aid facilitating in the making of the powerful structure and identifiable mental image of the place.

Figure 3 Screenshot of the Result from Searching Singapore on Google.com

Indeed, Marina Bay Sands has successfully done just that. By placing a heavy reliance on the use of architectural landmarks,

Her presence could be experience everywhere.

Everyone, in or out of Singapore, have seen and heard of her. With simply a click, she shall emerge. With simply a click, she shall surface, carefully revealing herself, overshadowing her peers while exposing her impressive beauty. As the background slowly darkens, she eloquently takes the center stage, demanding your attention.

The Singapore’s image has been around even before the construction of Marina Bay Sands. In fact, her very first representative image was in the early 1980s. An image showcasing Singapore’s modernist skyscrapers found along the CBD, overlooking the newly readapted Singapore River together with the rows of carefully preserved shophouses which hope to hint on Singapore’s attempt in welcoming the new while preserving the old. This representative image was, however, being replaced in 2002 with the emergence of Esplanade theatre, to suggest Singapore as a regional performing arts centre. Soon after the completion of Marina Bay, its city skyline was included into the visual representation to reposition Singapore into a global tourist huh while displaying Singapore’s vision of progressiveness and the embracement of the

Hence, allowing it to be recognisable as a separate entity. However, this distinctive characteristic has to be more than its surface appearance. It needed to be able to engage its users with authentic experiences. Experiences that are not distorted and mediated due to a series of arbitrary social constructs, but rather an experiential product as a result of being able to have a full sense of awareness and attachment to the place. Attachment in a way that one would feel as though he belongs part of the space. Thus allowing one to easily identify himself with. Therefore, the more profound the sense of attachment one has to the place, the stronger is the identity of the place.

1 Marina Bay Sands, are you a place of ‘Placelessness’?

“We don’t want Singapore to be just like any other city. We want it to be distinctive, to be different. And Marina Bay will personify this difference.” -Mr Mah Bow Tan, National Development Minister

Figure 6 Image Depicting Marina Bay as a place for Possible