Giah De los Reyes

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Thinking with Nipa palms & the afterlives of plantations

Thinking with Nipa palms & the afterlives of plantations poster

Thinking with Nipa palms & the afterlives of plantations, a Nipa thatching workshop as part of Voyaging Vapors: Plant Histories of Plantation Architecture. Chapter 1: Plant Histories, Singapore Botanic Gardens, 29–30 January, 2026.

  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop
  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop
  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop

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What happens when plantation systems no longer appear as fields, but continue to organize life in other ways? Where do their logics resurface today? How do extraction, repetition, and invisible maintenance continue to shape everyday life?

  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop
  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop

This workshop invited participants to think about plantations not only as historical agricultural sites, but as enduring systems whose afterlives structure contemporary social conditions. Working with nipa palm (Nypa fructicans) fronds from Singapore Botanic Gardens, participants made a small architectural gesture, a miniature roof shingle, that became a tool for reflection on repetition, maintenance, care, and collective survival beyond monocrop thinking.

  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop
  • Thinking with Nipa palms workshop

The workshop was held at the Burkhill Hall, a former residence of the Director of the Botanic Gardens. The symposium was organized by the research group “Voyaging Vapors: Plant Histories of Plantation Architectures” led by Dr. Will Davis at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), with Dr. Rixt Woudstra (University of Amsterdam), Siddharta Perez (NUS Museum), Giah De los Reyes-Geronimo, and Hélène Padma De Mello (USI). The symposium was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation and was organized in collaboration with and support from Singapore Botanic Gardens, National Parks Board (Nparks), National University of Singapore Museum, the Swiss Institute (Rome), and Università della Svizzera italiana.

thanks to Will Davis for capturing these photos in film!