6/04/2006

a new singapore icon - the holy trinity

The Sunday Times wrote about the latest achitectural monument in town, the Sands IR. From the achitectural perspective, some love it, some loath it. I love it. I find it very majestic and has a unique presence. A very enormous and distinctive piece of structure. And the geomancers have their say too. The three tall buildings resemble three joss sticks. The roof garden represents a cap on its growth, or the flatness appears like a knife slicing through the sky. Any building taller than this blade will be cut down. Or it resembles a piece of flyover disconnected from both ends. And the pool on top is like a building drown in water. All very imaginative and creative. Let me offer a very Singaporean interpretation. The three pillars symbolise the tripartite system of Government, Labour and Employer. How's that? And the roof top? Oh because of the sensitivity of the Govt and the people, the casino will be allowed to make handsome profits. But this will be kept at certain level and not allow to runaway uncontrolled. And there is this lotus structure which looks like the buddha's palm. This means that the IR will be expected to donate a lot of its profits to charity. And one final one. The lower buildings appears to be covered by a number of large tarpaulins. Hmmm, plenty of things to cover up. It is very easy to let wild your imiginations and put in your two cents worth. Whatever, it is a nice icon for a world class city state. And now we can tell the world of our extremely successful tripartite system that is the key foundation of a peaceful labour and industrial environment, a formula for growth.

2 comments:

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

if we are looking for a name for the IR, how about the holy trinity?
the father, son and the holy ghost.

my apologies to christians. just a punt in jest. not meant to be offensive.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

With hindsight, I can pretend to be clever. Actually if one looks at the design of the IR put up by Genting you will know that something is missing. There were two instead of three pillars. One pillar short. Can't make up the trinity. Just joking.

And when you look closely, the two pillars looked exactly like two screw bits screwing from below upwards into the sky. It is actually saying, screwing you from below, and the sky's the limit. Imaging if there were three screws...ouch! The fengshui people will say their profits will not be capped.

One funny thing. I can't help thinking that only two parties were really interested and bidding for it. Till today, have no idea what the other two proposals look like. Did they or did they not submit any proposals?

Why so mysterious?