The Populace Playground - Beyond Hipster Haven
Speculative Environments
Supervisor - Mr Richard Ho
The thesis is a rejuvenation Master Plan for Tiong Bahru that aims to tackle the current ‘hipster’ identity and the loss of its ‘neighbourhood’. Through the proposal of a new mechanised car park and sports centre, as well as a redesign of the current market and food centre, it aims to showcase the Master Plan’s capability to allow the community to form their own unique experience and memory for the estate. Eventually, the thesis envisions a future where Tiong Bahru is pedestrianised, and spaces are returned to the community, allowing the estate to retain its character and authenticity as a strong knitted neighbourhood, a populace playground.
The conservation of the pre-war Tiong Bahru flats resulted in a rise of ‘hipster’ cafes that resulted in a loss of community identity of the estate. The cafes displaced traditional shops that act as community interaction spaces, resulting in the estate’s liveliness being dependent on the cafes itself.
As change is inevitable, it questions the fate of Tiong Bahru as the the trend of ‘hipster’ cafes start to fade. To ensure the estate remains relevant and capable of withstanding the imminent changes, there is a need to withhold its ‘authenticity’ as a strong knitted community and to allow aging-in-place. With that, a rejuvenation Master Plan is designed for the estate which will be implemented in four phases.
The commercialisation of Tiong Bahru resulted in an increase of traffic that caused much inconvenience to the residents. Hence, the first phase proposes the pedestrianizing of the roads as well as absorbing the current car parks into a newly designed mechanized car park and sports complex.
The pairing of the car park and sports complex ensures that even infrastructure buildings are able to serve the interest of the community, even when its primary function as a car park is not fully utilised.
With the current car park emptied, the spaces are returned to the community in the form of a cycling park as well as a community extension. These spaces allow the residents to host activities and events for themselves or for the community. The spaces also invites the residents to spend more time outside their home, around the community.
Due to the lack of lifts within the estate, all ground floor units will be reserved for the elderly, to facilitate aging-in-place. This creates a ground floor elderly network and provides an opportunity to convert ground units of four blocks into a child care and day care centre to allow intergenerational interaction.
Lastly, the current market and food centre is re-designed to cater towards the community. With programmes such as a community kitchen, function area, playzone as well as a rooftop garden, it provides a sense of ownership to the community. Along with the porous design and central landscape, the market and food centre then also serves as an extension of all ground floor communal activities, as well as the child and day care centre.
Beyond that, the zoning and layout of the market and food centre is determined by the operating hours of each programmes, with the longest operating hours placed towards the pedestrianised street. This ensures the building remains a hub of activity as the heart of the estate.
The redesign of the market and food centre completes the populace playground, the Master Plan for the rejuvenation of Tiong Bahru. It envisions Tiong Bahru beyond a hipster haven. With architectural interventions spread across the estate, along with supporting programmes, the populace playground envisions the future of Tiong Bahru where spaces are returned to the community.
It hopes to allow residents to form their own unique experience and memory for the estate. Eventually allowing Tiong Bahru to retain its ‘authenticity’ as a strong knitted neighbourhood, as a populace playground.
Links & Contact:
Portfolio - https://issuu.com/yipkokyongjansen
Email - jansen_yip@yahoo.com.sg
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