Arranged Spaces

Abstract

Traditional provision shops have been around Singapore for quite a long time. Recognised as a vanishing trade and essential to Singapore’s heartland heritage, National Heritage Board (NHB) has been led to commission a research team to document a portion of the shops in 2011. Several other non-governmental were also involved with studying this area. Till date, the documentation of these traditional provision shops includes the life stories of the shop owners, the history and the general objects of the shops, and use of the shop as a context for film. This study aims to provide another aspect of documentation to the existing records by exploring the spatial layout of 4 traditional provision shops, with the stories behind the different objects that exist in the shop space.