Paper presentation "Urban Imaginaries: Pentecostal Architectures of Power in Singapore"

Description

The paper explores how imagination operates at the intersection of religion, architecture, and urban planning through the case study of New Creation Church (NCC) and its landmark building, The Star, in Singapore. Officially designated as a secular cultural and retail complex, The Star also serves as the main worship venue for NCC, Singapore’s largest megachurch. Drawing on the concepts of “architecturations of Pentecostal power” (Katsaura 2023) and “infrastructuring religion” (Burchardt 2023), the paper argues that The Star, as a material structure, shapes religious imaginaries of success, divine favour, and urban belonging while also navigating and transcending the constraints of Singapore’s tightly regulated urban space.
The building’s iconic design, strategic ambiguity, and symbolic naming allow it to function simultaneously as a secular venue and a religiously infused space. Through visual elements, media representations, and embodied practices, The Star becomes a site where religious imagination is activated and made tangible. It is imagined by church members as a divine gift and spiritual home, while also being framed in public discourse as a futuristic cultural hub. This duality reflects broader dynamics of control and freedom and visibility and invisibility related to urban planning of religious sites in Singapore’s.
By examining how The Star is imagined, seen, and experienced, this paper contributes to our understanding of how religious communities use architecture and media to claim space and visibility and to shape identity in the context of plural societies with highly regulated urban spaces. It highlights the creative and strategic ways in which religion participates in world-making, not only through doctrine and ritual, but through the built environment of contemporary urbanism and the affective power of architecture and images.

Period	6 Nov 2025
Event title	NGG Biannual Conference Religion/Imagination
Event type	Conference
Location	Utrecht, NetherlandsShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International