Void Deck

The term is used for the base of housing towers here that have been left empty for one reason or another—dangers of flooding perhaps in early phase construction. Occasionally the spaces are put to recreational use: children play ball on the concrete, elderly gather for mahjong at tables provided, young pre-schoolers brought for games and activities within the caverns. More often they live up to their name.

         Eighteen months ago the first wedding happened upon in a Void Deck surprised. 

         Passing from a distance through the Haig blocks a large assembly drewn attention. Something very particular was underway. Tables and chairs were arranged, a large camp kitchen, bunting and carpeting that totally transformed the space. Within the innermost recess a young couple were enthroned on a raised dias covered in colourful fabric, the pair bejeweled and crowned. “Kings and queens for a day,” the Malays said.

         An old bachelor found most striking of all their youth, sitting obediently as they had been told for the audience before them. In ancient days sacrificial victims awaiting their fate could not have appeared much different. As for many traditional cultures, Malay weddings extended over a number of days and drew three or four hundred guests, who were accommodated in shifts within the Voids.

         Had there been a carpet of money strewn before the couple? Hours later some of the impressions seemed questionable.

         Never failing to produce a jolt for a casual passerby are the wakes that are commonly held on the Void Decks. For a newcomer the occasion failed to reveal itself at once. A smaller gathering, tables and chairs, yellow cloth decoration and a strange cricketing-like assembly for the bereaved. Strange for Balkan eyes, the traditional Chinese Buddhist colour of mourning turns out to be white. The curtained inner recess with altar at the head was the last element noticed.

         On the final day of the wake the young Buddhist monk officiates in what appears an informal service—smoking, chattering and eating continue behind the chanting out front. In the case of the first of these Void Deck wakes at the Haig blocks and well before moving to room in the immediate neighbourhood, it was only the wet cheek of one of the young girls standing in line before the screened casket that suggested the nature of the event.

         Again this morning pacing the covered walkway through the towers soon after breakfast, a sudden shock again at the stretched tarpaulin.

         Caskets Fairprice.

         The large supermarket chain had diversified.