Before air-conditioning was introduced in Singapore in the 1920s, temperature control was a matter of architectural design. Environmental historian Fiona Williamson tells us how people kept themselves cool before air-conditioning arrived, why weather science was important to the colonial enterprise, and what environmental history can tell us about a city’s development.

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What Fiona Talked About

About the Guest

Fiona Williamson is an environmental historian with a particular interest in the history of the climate, meteorology and extreme weather in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong. She is professor of environmental history at the Singapore Management University.

Resources

Fiona Williamson, “Playing It Cool: The Early History of Air Conditioning in Singapore,” BiblioAsia 21, no. 4 (January–March 2026).
Fiona Williamson, Imperial Weather: Meteorology, Science, and the Environment in Colonial Malaya (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2025).

Credits

This episode of BiblioAsia+ was hosted by Jimmy Yap and produced by Soh Gek Han. Sound engineering was done by Nookcha Films. The background music "Di Tanjong Katong" was composed by Ahmad Patek and performed by Chords Haven. Special thanks to Fiona for coming on the show.

About the Podcast

BiblioAsia+ is a podcast about Singapore history by the National Library Singapore.

Transcript