I had many ideas for my blog post, but I had to choose which one I will write on. anyway, this post reconfirms how architecture really enlightens life; which it encompasses our culture, our environment and sometimes it goes beyond unexpected borders; like an action-packed movie. since this includes entertainment, I think this will be a very interesting post.
yeah, you’ve guessed it. this time I’m writing about the famed movie, pirates of the caribbean - particularly the third trilogy; at world’s end. initially, I was planning to cover my architecture options 302 trip to penang, but as soon as I thought about georgetown in the 1800s, this scene of chow yun fat’s captain sao feng struck me. we all know it, it’s in singapore!
right, the shot was not done in singapore itself, as singapore has lost its historical trace of the 19th century era due to modernisation. in fact, the best preserved chinatown of singapore is heavily remodelled and redecorated for tourism, which significantly lose that historical essence. old georgetown, penang and malacca have a better representation of that period than singapore; to portray the darkness (secret societies & clan wars) that has been associated to the place at that time. nevertheless, you’ll find more on georgetown penang’s 1800s in my upcoming post.
plus, singapore’s squeaky clean river doesn’t contribute well to the movie either. so they build up an extremely expensive, elaborate set of singapore in 1800s - which was inside a huge tank of water. contrary to majority of our perception that singapore is so clean & modern nowadays, the team actually did a great amount of research on that period of singapore (although they made a few decision not to follow exactly the way it was). in fact, the singaporean authorities even planned to ban the movie as it brings bad image to the city.
actually in the past, when sir stamford raffles’s settlement was several decades old, mass influx of immigrants especially the chinese settled there, bringing along their good and their bad; including secret societies like triad (the directors probably included piracy too) - making the three straits settlements - penang, malacca and singapore in such darkened social condition.
so lol, the singaporean authorities should have praised them instead, as they successfully transformed such disease-ridden environment to what it is today.
now that singapore set portrays the mixture of malay house and chinese shophouse architecture, known as the eclectic straits style. it is very evident that they used malay house’s iconic attap roof on top of a chinese shophouse - though I doubt such mixed-up house such as above existed. the whole thing was constructed in a stage, comprising of 40 (wow) structures which included a trading marketplace, a shop-fronted street and a bathhouse. although the bathhouse was emminently centrepiece of singapore set, it doesn’t really portray of such spa-centred culture during that time.
now that’s a nice looking architectural plan. since the whole set is portrayed as a fishing village, the set is accurately designed with the floating malay kampung houses on stilts- suspending the structures above the water. so if you can’t become an architect - you can be a movie set designer!
“Atmospherically, the Singapore set actually felt like Southeast Asia, with heavy, dripping humidity caused by the thousands of gallons of water in the tank utilized to create the harbor area, combined with the heat emanating from the powerful lighting equipment. There was even a visible fog which could always be seen just above the water level!”
so such is how a southeast asian fishing village is portrayed. the sea is seemingly sludgy, an important point emphasized by the set designer. in fact, the whole set reflects the disease-ridden hygiene level of the period, with heavy moisture and moistness. well, the bathtub is the worst part of all, with mushrooms and moss growing around the tub and even out of the pirates’ body themselves!
nevertheless, the roof style up there might be an southeast asian architectural style, but definitely not singapore’s. that is a minangkabau house style, with its magnificently curved hip roof which is exclusive to negeri sembilan or some parts of sumatran island. I guess the producer think that roof is such iconic for southeast asian architecture and took it for singapore instead.
now it’s time to credit the person for the singapore set. it’s rick heinrichs and his team that designed the set, him being equavalent to an architect of the set (applause please). and also to the equavalent of the interior designer; cheryl carasik (set decorator), which filled the whole set with lanterns and rattan baskets for a more ‘oriental’ environment.
while the practical architect had their finished work stood for, well permanently - rick heinrichs’ special singapore set was destined to; wait for it…
be BLOWN UP as special effects of the movie!
I wonder how rick and cheryl would feel while their delicate work being blown to smithereens. (I guess I understand their feelings very well as I have several recurring experiences as my works being ravaged.)
so to close this up; here’s the featurette video of singapore set and some reference; oh of course there’s a quote too.
“Singapore is a mélange of different influences and architectural styles… (so) We took a deliberately fantastical approach, creating something like a Chinese/Malaysian expressionist style of what we think Singapore might have looked like at the time.” by rick heinrichs
an architectural student from malaysia, studying in limkokwing university of creative technology, pursuing his degree in architectural science
