Community

Amber Yong Ling

Wet markets have been an essential part of Singapore’s history ever since her early days as a bustling commercial port. Wet markets also possess unique characteristics that facilitates connection between people from different ethnicities and religions, further solidifying Singapore’s status as a multiracial society. Nevertheless, wet markets as a public space have declined in social significance in recent years.

Located in the central area of Queenstown, Mei Ling Market and Food Centre provides a great opportunity as a potential meeting ground. Communities seeks to create spaces and activities to bring people together and this can potentially be achieved in Mei

Ling Market and Food Centre through its revitalization, particularly through expanding its product offering into the primary, secondary, and tertiary sectors.

This three-sector design will create spaces that bolster community involvement and ownership, especially in the foodscaping and production of new food gardens and transient spaces. These spaces will complement the current wet market to provide a greater variety of recreational activities for visitors and residents while preserving the authenticity of the wet market. Lastly, Mobi-s will enhance and support the market through activities, as well as delivery services for the market.

Queen’s Stop

Hia Siew Yi

The project Queen’s Stop seeks to understand the importance of inherent relationships among people in the community in this secluded estate through daily interactions among people. Thus, the project aims to enhance social interaction within the community by altering existing paths and gathering spaces to promote productive collision between people during their daily commute. In addition, the project also aims to enhance an under-utilised exercise corner with therapeutic landscape features that could benefit the elderly and other residents living in the estate.

The project design also aims to create Queens close’s very own community social plaza that is flexible in terms of social scale and activities. The multi-function plaza could be transformed into an event node that reverses human flow, attracting people from other parts of Queenstown.

The site will also fully utilise the existing topography to incorporate a water storage system to reuse rainwater for the water play area and slow down stormwater run-off that would be directed to the bio-retention basin before it flows out to the canal.

Tanglin V

Ho Jing Jing

Involuntary relocation, resulting from urban redevelopment, can create a profound sense of loss in identity and community for the elderly. Therefore, the attachment to place and fading of old memories would require time to part with. In pursuit of achieving a higher urban density, the older estates in Tanglin Halt would be replaced with dense high-rise developments, ringing in a new community of younger families. Displaced older residents would be moved to Dawson, further from their network of trusted support systems.

“Tanglin V” aims to provide a smooth transition with colours whilst addressing the retention of memory, high urban density, and building of future connections within the site. Colour approaches as a transitionary tool for the elderly would aid four objectives: the preservation of Tanglin’s entrepreneurial heritage, connection between residents of different estates through mobile services, the physical and psychological transition of old to new memories, and the scaling of urban developments on site. These are implemented through phases, with the gradual introduction of colour strategies and progressive demolition of the buildings.

This paves the way for a communal village park, replete with modern re-enactments of the “kampong spirit” with the retention of iconic Tanglin motifs, small community buildings, and the provision of social services.

Artists’ Third Place

Zhang Wen

Artist’s Third Place aims to redefine the success of designing a senior-friendly outdoor space, tapping on the emphasis of self-expression for a successful aging. Upon site analysis, seniors were showing signs of lethargy and frailness, while the younger population are regularly moving about their day, revealing the disconnect and the neglect of these seniors. The study of self-expression is therefore interposed, in hopes of enhancing their quality of life through engaging in creative / artistic activities as an avenue for exploring and achieving emotional expression, sense of recognition and connection with others.

A sense of motivation is requisite for the seniors to get involved in the creative initiative, leading to the concept of introducing landscape ‘mediators’ to the neighborhood spaces, also known as the third space, where informal gatherings can transpire. Landscape ‘mediators’ include landscape pavers, landscape elements, Mobi-s, and community initiatives. This ‘mediator’ is akin to a blank canvas, ready to be filled with artwork done by the elderly who essentially become landscape artists creating a new identity for this neighbourhood.

artists’ third place

Group Members Reflections

Tan Jie Min

From conducting workshops to better understand the community to detail design, this studio has been a rollercoaster yet fruitful ride. This semester has taught us to put ourselves into the shoes of the public and residents and truly focus on a specific direction that we (the students) wish to create an impact on. Furthermore, it also emphasizes the connections between the old and the young and the importance of keeping the old relevant and connected to the world.

Yulin Teo

Designing public spaces based on a specific community/neighbourhood needs helps to bring community residents together and encourages social gatherings. Through this studio, I learn that adults do play an important role in forging the intergeneration bond between the young and old. This semester’s studio has allowed us to learn to observe, understand and design with the user’s needs in mind. We were exposed to new things such as organising a workshop to better understand and listen to the residents’ needs before coming out with design strategies.

Chester Lee Yong Lin

There is complexity when it comes to designing public spaces and it is especially challenging when the design is to meet the needs of all demographic age groups. In ensuring spaces are adequately and effectively designed, site analysis, observations, and survey play a critical role in understanding the fundamental needs of the people and uncovering the complexity of the overall issue. When designing for the public, one should not assume the problems faced by the different demographics but design based on actual and genuine needs.

Tan Sok Vin

“From Beginning to End” made me more aware of aging towns and the importance of connectivity in living spaces and landscapes because without spatial connections, human bonds would, too, be disconnected. This academic semester has been an extraordinary four months as we were given the opportunity to look at things from a diffferent perspective, emphasizing on the essence of designing for the users, by the users.

Julia Tong Wai Shan

Working on the first satellite town in Singapore has been an experience. This studio puts a spotlight on two extreme age groups, the young and old, but in actuality, it is for us to discover beyond that requisite about the various mental and physical needs of not only the residents of Queenstowns but everyone. Also, being able to engage with people on a personal level to create a publicly opinionated design was a first. All in all, the semester was a real eye-opener for designers to realise the need to solve real-world problems as an individual.