​Ventilation Grilles

We cant be sure if these mild steel gates are of Chinese origins or not. Perhaps, the need for security was what was born out of this is necessity.

 

The Chinese’ consideration of security is embodied in the door. The window and door lattice however is more for the purpose of ventilation. In the Chinese version, lattices are always fixed on windows or doors.

 

What is known subsequently is that Chinese influences did come into play in the making of grille patterns and motifs. We are however, unsure of the other geometric shapes. Lattices were born out of the necessity of security. This need arose from the Industrial Revolution and the way we constructed our buildings.

 

What preceded this form of security feature were the wooden/timbre poles. (As seen in the earlier versions of shophouses)

 

Mild steel came after cast iron. Mild steel just needs welding together to produce patterns. It is a softer material which is hence much more expressive. It was precisely because of technological advancements that they came about.

 

I think the very nature of mild steel led man to naturally start making them into functional decorative pieces. The question is what came next; what kind of shapes and patterns. Some consisted of geometric shapes, which came to Singapore pretty late in the face of modernization,

 

In the era of the Singapore Improvement Trust (SIT): In those days, air conditioning was non-existent. Ventilation was however a necessity for tropical living. The modern apartments that were being built up at that time did not consist of bungalow of kampong houses but publics housing flats like those in Tiong Bharu Estate.

For security reasons, a door is required. If the door is closed, there is no ventilation. With ventilation grilles or poles, it promoted the circulation of daylight and air through the house. The patterned mild steel grilles are no different in function from the vertical wooden poles. Mild steel came in vogue as it was more expressive and sat well with the Art modern, streamline modern styling. Geometric shapes also started to come about.

 

It is difficult to date these patterns- Which came first or later.

 

My personal guess would be that the simplified geometric shapes came first. The people who made such grilles perhaps started off started making simple ones, of which they later were able to experiment and come up with more complex designs as time went on and they got more familiar with the material. There’s no way we know for sure, unless I’m able to hunt down an artisan who used to make this.

 

(As a qualified guess and a logical point of view.) I would guess that they started off with simple forms.

 

This whole idea ties in with the idea of functionality and having an understanding about what it means to live in the tropics. Go around the same estate- Not just the grilles but the ventilation blocks too. They are also interesting and exciting. They tend to be very geometric because they have to be stacked up in modular form.

Looking at ventilation blocks, a lot of them have similar form and shapes. They all form part and parcel of the period’s styling.

 

 

This could be an offshoot of my study-  at the same time , they have a different trajectory that is influencing this whole range of architectural components of that time.

 

To a certain extent, one can even argue (a qualified argument as we don’t know for sure) the Prenakans would call it the Pintu Paga (a half door that is kept closed but the main door is still open so that light and air can still come in)

 But the Pintu Paga is also not necessarily Prenakan, but Chinese, aka the Fu Zhou Men. So there are many other influences that could have influenced this, but how it all started, I would think that the main premise of why they wanted this would be to allow cross-ventilation, light and air to get into interiors.

 

The Chinese lattices started off as Balustrades ( a barrier betwee the inside and the outside) when they got adapted to full-length covered doors, it was still for security. The door itself is for security. However, when lattices got incorporated into the door, it was for ventilation and light.)

 

Geometric form inspired these patterns. Why reinvent the wheel when there is already a body of knowledge. There was no need to reinvent the wheel. Esp in sg where it is predominantly Chinese. As a qualified guess, I would also presume that those who made these grilles are Chinese.

 

Back to Tiong Bharu- SIT architects designed the building. Are these gates and grilles part of the architect’s design.

Eg: you buy a HDB flat that comes with a window. They give you the metal gate. When you take over the HDB, the home owner will insall their own window grilles. If you walk around some of the older HDB edtates, you would still be able to see that some of the units do not have grilles.

 

Coming back to SIT, is it conceivably to believe that when these SIT flats were purchased, would it have been such that the houses did not have any grilles on them, only doors and timbre windows.

 

The grilles were installed by the individual owners, which then explains why there are so many variations of gill designs. if I were the architect, why would I come up with so many different designs?

 It is impossible for the architect to come up with some many different designs, for diferen household.

 

So a qualified guess would be that the grilles have nothing to do with the architects in SIT these are the grilles that were put in by the individual home owners who moved in and  decided that ‘ I think I need to install a grille for security and I will get a contractor to design and install one for me. ‘ (this should be the case for the windows.)

 

However, I’m not too sure if it is the same case for the doors.

 

One way to find out- are the gates all of the same design? No.if they’re not then are they then clustered in terms of design? No.

 

Personal preference. Hypothesis: the owner wanted two designs. But both could be of different vintage, it could be that the door used to be of a certain form, and was replaced. Etcetc.

 

My qualified guess would be that these grilles were actually not part of the architect’s design. The ventilation blocks were however part of the structural design as they were integral to the building. The window and door grilles however, were additional which makes it more interesting as they involve individual preference. More expressive than one uniform.

 

Ie: I will put in something which I like. I will not put in something which I do not like. That is my guess.

‘to me this is very exciting and populist. I like it I put it up, and it gives a certain unique character to the place.’

 

Could it be that the architects contracted somebody to fit these grilles?

 

Why not: why would the govt do this?

 

If you’re talking about the govt/SIT building mass housing for the people: 

 

Private developer: could be a possibility that for small group individual small estates/areas – they decided to standardize en mass for everyone. Which explains certain the uniformity.  

 

That’s why I asked if you see a uniformity in SIT flats, then it dispels the notion that it could have been provided by the SIT architects.

 

Club street: certainly owners’ addition of the windows to the standardized built structure.

 

Conclusion: the buildings were built by the govt/private developers. And the grille gates and doors were installed by external contractors who requested for them after taking ownership of these buildings.

 

 

I think you can work on the assumption that 90%  of the time these grilles were installed by the home owners rather than the designers, architects or the developers.’

 

I would think that the so-called catalog is from the catalog of the grilles contractor. And made one by one by hand.

 

Such practices must have evolved from something (wrought iron catalog to mild steel grille catalog)

 

'No, I don’t think these grille motif patterns are unique to sg. No one can lay claim to geometric patterns. However, ‘Chinese motifs’ per se- we cant lay claim to them either. Well the motifs could be texted based, flowers, lanterns.. but these are again very generic.

 

But what I may be able to establish (this I’m not too sure,- is it unique to this region? using mild steel and combining these motifs together with mild steel..?)

 

Cultural identity? Are these grilles that unique to this part of asia.

 

Question to me: these grille patterns are very prevalent in this part of the world. And has a very rich artisanal value. You wont say it’s art- it’s not made by artists, but it has a certain artisanal value in that particular context of time in Sg and the region (in relation to) the world.

 

I think that is at most what we can lay claim to.

 

And although many designs seeminly to have Chinese influences, are they that Chinese? ''

 

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