Land reclamation
In the 1960s, Singapore gorge the soil from its tiny hills and ridges and used it to reclaim land. The island is virtually flat today, forcing the government to buy sand from Malaysia and Indonesia to continue with its reclamation efforts. In the early stages of each land reclamation project, when the imported sand sits for some time, huge desert-like landscapes begin to dominate the eastern and western coasts of Singapore, mainly Tuas, Punggol, Marine Parade and Changi. When these deserts started appearing in the 1960s, they took the place of the beaches that locals used to frequent. Making do with what they had, Sin- gaporeans flocked to these reclaimed spaces on the weekends to walk towards the new shoreline, in the hopes of reaching the beach they once knew.
Changi, Singapore, possibly 1970s
Copyright 2011, The Land Archive