Design My Place

Group 12

School: Republic Polytechnic

The concept that team Republic has come up with lot 12 is to acquire the 3 R’s:

Restore, Revive Relive.

Knowing site 12 to be a meaningful and symbolic site for Singapore, we would like to preserve the essence of what is left and bring a concept that is able to appeal to all walks of life.

We are proposing a cultural Hub to the site. What is the concept all about? The concept of the cultural hub is to promote and encourage the existing cultures in that area and to make it known to more people which will then build an identity for the site.

The add ons that we have propose are an outdoor Film screening, instilling School of Arts and culture, an underground Cultural Square as well as an underground multi-storey car park.

First and foremost, we decided to use film medium to generate a sense of culture. With an idea of the open air film screening site where it will showcase old and nostalgic films to relive the older day activities like showcasing old films and movies acted out by P Ramlee etc. that was derived from the Javanese outdoor theatre back in the olden days.

The existing grass would be retained so as to give that "kampong" feel but at the same time, we have steel lattice inspired by Frank Gehry's Jay Pritzker Pavilion. This steel lattice is a deployable shelter so that it can still be functional during the rainy days - a canvas can be used to cover the screening site. Apart from that, it is there so as to suspend the speakers to give the place a nice audio surrounding. The steel lattice also creates a sense of space and gives a contemporary look to the site. In addition, by having this aspect, it will help create opportunities for youngsters to showcase their Short media production films thus, encouraging more art into Singapore’s youth.

The second element being instilled in Site 12 would be School of Arts and Culture (SOAC). This is here to create a cultural hub within this site. Currently the site has a few schools; Alsagoff Arab school and the Chinese school. So in relation to an educational hub, SOAC has various schools such as fashion and costume design, school of film and theatre, school of dance, school of handicrafts and many more. Given the cultural programmes going on like events in the heritage, by creating this school, the students are able to learn more about not only culture but also the arts. Therefore the idea of having schools will create a livelier environment and can thus attract more people.

We are building an underground Cultural Square. Basically, this is to setup a contemporary art space as well as retail of handicraft and art materials and eating places are also available. A permanent exhibit of Iskandar Jalil will be housed in the art space. The underground led to the outdoor amphitheatre and located below it will be equip with changing room. In addition, knowing the space used to have a significance background, at the top of the cultural square, there will be a pavilion of wayang kulit performance where people can relive those days. This open space will be augmented with information panels which will provide the public with detailed insights of the performance art.

Lastly, since some of the roads have been replace with the walkway. It might cause inconvenience to people travelling by transportation therefore we have created multi-story carpark with a roof top garden to make it appealing greenery. As a whole, the cultural hub promises to inject new life by bringing in young people to learn more about their cultural heritage, the old to relive the good old days as well as encourage tourism where tourist is able to get the vibe and be enlightened of the cultural practices and tradition.