In the 1960s, the wave of countries gaining their independence from colonial powers coincided with the peak of the modernist movement in architecture. It’s no surprise that some of these young nations began to express their national identity through design. Singapore was no exception. But while some of its “heroic modernist” public buildings have been widely documented, the same is not true of the many ordinary buildings that played an equally crucial role in nation-building. The recently published book Everyday Modernism: Architecture and Society in Singapore chronicles the socioeconomic history and cultural experiences of these buildings.

A key difference between heroic and everyday modernist buildings lies in their authorship. The latter were largely planned and designed by government agencies such as the Housing & Development Board (HDB).