Newhouse Fellows Series: Eng-Beng Lim

Megastructures of Feeling in "Crazy Rich Asians"

This talk will begin with the wildly popular film Crazy Rich Asians, set in a billion-dollar botanical megastructure, Singapore's Gardens by the Bay, as a point of departure for understanding the hyperdevelopment of big, starchitectural buildings in global Asia and the Middle East. We will consider the megastructure of feeling in these buildings as a tonic of modernity, a techno-orientalist utopia, an avant-garde failure, an infrastructural hermeneutic, and a futuristic complex for Singapore, Asian America, and Asia's America. Come get a sense of what is a megastructure, and what are its implications not only for global cities but also global universities and any project funded by big money, big idea, and big ambition. 

This event will be livestreamed via Zoom. Click here to pre-register for the livestream.

This event is free and open to the public. No pre-registration is required to attend in-person.