Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture

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Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture

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  • Project Name: Possession is 9/10 The Law
  • Student Name: Lee Wen Xuan Cara
  • Softwares/Plugins: SketchUp , Procreate , AutoCAD , Adobe Photoshop , Microsoft PowerPoint
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Excerpt: ‘Possession is 9/10 The Law’ is a Bachelors Design Project by Lee Wen Xuan Cara from the ‘Architectural Association School of Architecture (AA).’ The project explores alternative ownership models within the context of Kampong Lorong Buangkok through speculative architecture. It challenges conventional land ownership models through fluid, relational approaches that reflect the lived experiences, histories, and evolving rituals of communities. It opens up new possibilities for inhabiting space—where value is defined not by market worth, but by connection, memory, and togetherness.

Introduction: Land, like relationships, is shaped by intertwined histories and the people who have inhabited and nurtured it. As Singapore continually reshapes its landscape, we are prompted to ask: can spaces be reimagined when the act of mapping extends beyond the rigid boundaries imposed by traditional systems of land division?

Daily life often unfolds in ambiguous zones. This project explores alternative ownership models within the context of Kampong Lorong Buangkok—a privately owned area under threat of government acquisition. By introducing new communities into the land, the project complicates its social fabric, making it more difficult for the state to assert control, though this inevitably leads to tension. These tensions, however, give rise to new ways of defining boundaries—ones that are deeply rooted in the site’s layered history and expressed through a ritualistic patchwork of claims.

These rituals influence the land’s visual identity, becoming part of everyday practice. Even private areas exist within broader public realms; instead of being markers of division, such nuanced thresholds invite more fluid, relational forms of ownership. These models can evolve through negotiation and the embrace of conflict, ultimately humanizing both policy and design to reflect the complex, overlapping nature of lived space.

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Site Context

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Boundaries systemise the realms of ownership transactionally. Yet, the spatial entanglements of daily life, present in traditional Kampongs, resist such rigidity. In Singapore’s public housing, thresholds, ambiguous spaces, not legally owned are often approached with hesitation, not because they are forbidden, but because they lack a clear social script. People live side by side but rarely interact, as policies and design reinforce homes as personal assets rather than shared environments

Located in Singapore’s central-eastern region, Kampong Lorong Buangkok stands as the last surviving kampong amid an otherwise uniform landscape of concrete development. When people envision Singapore, few would associate it with the zinc-roofed, timber homes found here. While kampongs are often seen as “rural,” “outdated,” or even “slum-like,” this particular kampong is fully integrated into modern infrastructure, complete with electricity and running water—it is no longer what it once was.

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Maps become tools that influence these perceptions, as we attempt to represent ownership through lines, grids and parcels. So is ownership only defined through legality or is there more to it? | Kampong Lorong Buangkok, is the last remaining kampong in Singapore, an otherwise homogenised concrete jungle. Nonetheless, the land it sits on is at risk of being acquired by the government.

Most residents still pay modest rents of under $100 a month, thanks to Mdm Sng Mui Hong, the landowner, who is committed to preserving the “Kampong Spirit”—a sense of community and mutual care. Though the land is now worth an estimated $70 million, she has refused to sell, prioritizing these intangible values over profit in a society increasingly driven by economic worth. Despite her efforts, the land remains vulnerable to government intervention under existing Land Acquisition laws.

Design Process

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Mdm Sng sensed that the community was at risk and sought the kampong architect for a countermeasure. He proposed bringing more people into the kampong to strengthen communal stakes and complicate government acquisition
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
One morning, Mdm Sng, received a letter in her mailbox.
She opened the letter only to find that it was a government notice to inform officials visiting to conduct studies | They first targeted rejectees of public housing, publicizing the kampong as a place to vent, where people brought their documents to consult each other. In outrage, someone suddenly ripped the documents and everyone followed. Rain fell and they ran for shelter, leaving the mess forgotten. Days later, the architect finds the paper scraps realizing that they had hardened. He then proposed to build a pavilion with these papers of rejection, drawing more people in

A combination of physical work and drawing was employed, gradually interwoven with the broader narrative. What began as an intuitive patchwork evolved into a design language that guided subsequent work, enabling an exploration that extended beyond purely formal or aesthetic concerns.

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
With time, the pavilion grew, with the help of volunteers, they watched as the ink from their ripped contracts dissolved in the rain, releasing them from societal pressures. Soon, the pavilions spiraled out of control as people claimed space as their own, laundry appeared in public spaces, hung all over
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Mdm Sng and the architect became concerned about the situation, needing an alternative. They started mapping experiences within the community, coming to a revelation. If they could disperse the newfound community around the kampong, it could further blur the lines of ownership, where the government would further struggle to navigate its social fabric
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
When someone plants trees, someone else waters them and another harvests, the seeds casually thrown out might then grow new trees, deeming its ownership untraceable. Same for the chickens that roam, shared by all

By drawing from the existing site’s construction methods and visual character, the project fostered a convergence of design languages. This fusion helped articulate a story about the land’s layered history, its community, and the complexities of life that go beyond conventional architectural frameworks.

Final Outcome

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
With combined knowledge of both the existing and new community, people took parts of the paper pavilion, forming their own hybrid interventions.
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Structures were slowly erected, with a combination of communal and private functionalities. Domestic spaces were taken apart and scattered across the ‘in-betweens’ adding layers of ownership | Life had become inseparable from the land, with its own unspoken language and rituals. The kampong was never completely saved, remaining vulnerable, yet alive and resilient. Instead of fighting ownership, it wove relationships, a story that never truly meets its ends.
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Despite the domestic nature, they were also communal, as people found ways to save resources, kitchens served as ground floors to living spaces allowing for shared meals, spontaneous conversations, and overlapping routines. Washing, doing laundry, growing, rearing become a form of blurred boundaries, maintained and used by all.

This project challenges the relevance of conventional ownership models in today’s context, where land is often defined by clean, abstract boundaries drawn on paper—boundaries that overlook the lived realities and relationships tied to the land. It asks whether alternative forms of ownership could emerge—ones that redefine or even dissolve these thresholds. 

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
One day, a family used an existing tree as a supporting structure for their new home. However, without knowledge of the tree’s species, they were slowly weakening it.
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Together with the tree, the home, never completed, had fallen. As dissatisfaction arose, members of the community then called for a meeting to induce order.
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Mdm Sng helped educate the community with her knowledge. To mourn the fallen tree, the community turned instinctively to the familiar: sewing, layering, and cutting fabric. These acts—rooted in ritual—bound them together, not only as symbols, but as means to move the debris.

Are such boundaries truly necessary for nurturing rituals and habits within a once-connected, now-isolated community that draws on past values while adapting to change? These questions invite a broader view of ownership—one that goes beyond legal frameworks and fixed possession, embracing a more relational, evolving understanding of place and belonging.

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
This incident gave rise to a monthly ceremony—a new tradition born from the clash between old and new communities. Over time, the patched fabrics became visual records of care and contribution, woven into the land itself. People built around these radii, and as they tended to the land, the map slowly cultivated itself. When the government officials arrived, they stepped around chickens, asked who planted the trees, and there was no answer—because everyone did. Mdm Sng watched, satisfied. She knew that for years to come, embedded in everyone was belonging, woven from the threads of relationships on the land.
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Land, like the relationships formed upon it is entwined with the people who have nurtured it even as Singapore continuously rewrites its own landscape. Perhaps spaces can be reimagined if maps begin to insinuate beyond the thresholds, inviting recollections rather than systemized numerals, as policies become more humanized, accommodating the blurred boundaries of ownership.
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Rather than symbols of separation, contextual thresholds open new doors toward fluid, relational ownership models, evolved through experience and negotiation, celebrating conflict and layered pasts. Even the most private spaces exist in public ones, so, how relevant are rigid ownership systems in today’s context?

Conclusion: In rethinking land, ownership, and community, this project proposes a more fluid, relational model that honors lived experience, layered histories, and evolving rituals. By challenging rigid boundaries and embracing complexity, it opens up new possibilities for inhabiting space—where value is defined not by market worth, but by connection, memory, and the spirit of togetherness.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]

Site Context

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture

Design Process

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture

Final Outcome

Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture
Possession Is 9/10 The Law: Reimagining Ownership In Kampong Lorong Buangkok, Singapore | Bachelors Design Project On Speculative Architecture

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