Urban Sketchers Singapore (Part 1 of 3)

Wanted to have a meal at the Maxwell Road Hawker Centre, but the public parking lot was so full with tons of cars queuing. So we parked at the building close to it. No idea what building this was. Turned out to be the URA building and as we took the lift to the first level, an interesting poster caught my eye and I wanted to have a closer look. Lo and behold was a full fledged exhibition. It’s the nicest thing to come upon something cool like this and not expected it at all. And it was free. All I could think was, it must be cool to work for the Urban Redevelopment Authority. Well at least if you don’t have tons of red tape to deal with and your job is mostly creative.

This is the poster that first caught my eye – Urban Sketchers Singapore. The title connotes that the focus is on the activity of creating the art rather than the drawings alone. Only later did I find out on Notabilia’s blog, that there is actually a book that is being launched, containing these amazing sketches of Singapore and her people.

photo by bookjunkie

But there was actually a whole exhibition going on besides the sale of the book, with very cool scale models of Singapore. Really shows how tiny our island is and how close every part of Singapore is to each other.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

It was about both the architecture and art. URA was involved as well to illustrate how urban planning is done.

photo by bookjunkie

The close-ups of the scale model were fascinating to me. I love seeing the whole city in a condensed format.

photo by bookjunkie

I was reminded of my Urban Geography lessons, and I was never any good at to scale drawings. Topographical maps for Natural Geography were quite a nightmare as well. But still – I loved geography and still do. Anthropology, Literature and History were also favourite subjects. Learning is pure pleasure to me and I am grateful for the few awesome teachers who inspired me and made me feel that way.

photo by bookjunkie

photo by bookjunkie

There was a video presentation as well.

photo by bookjunkie

Seeing the water and green on the map is quite reassuring. One thing I would suggest is a major clean up of all our beaches so that they can be closer to pristine, like the one at Changi. Not Bintan beaches pristine, but at least good enough for us so that we don’t have to take a ferry anywhere else to enjoy the beach. I especially think the beach at Sembawang needs a clean up but with the oil tankers around it might be a pretty difficult affair.

photo by bookjunkie

About bookjunkie

Blogging about life in Singapore & recently cancer too.
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4 Responses to Urban Sketchers Singapore (Part 1 of 3)

  1. Laura says:

    I’ve previously been to the URA gallery to look at the models of Singapore and other buildings but this exhibition looks really interesting. I shall have to go again.

    • bookjunkie says:

      I hardly imagined a place where civil servants work would have an exhibit so cool. Must be a treat for them each time the employees come down to the lobby.

  2. Laura says:

    I agree, I was a Civil Servant back in the UK and we never had anything that exciting to look at. Mind you that is another lovely thing about Singapore that you can wander in off the streets and look at exhibits like that. In the UK you could never do that unless you worked there or had a specific reason to be there.

    • bookjunkie says:

      I at first thought it was a closed exhibit for only staff of the URA but was surprised to find anyone could view it with no charges imposed.

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