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Monday, August 08, 2005

JC2 speech.

Good morning lecturers and fellow course mates.

The site that DSC has acquired is situated in an area where it is at the confluence of diverse urban characteristics. I feel that the site's most significant aspect is the historical values of it, the fact that it is sandwiched between MICA building and central fire station and situated at the foot of fort canning hill. Thus, it is very important that I should take these factors into consideration as I progress with my design.

Another point to note is of course the client's objectives and demands. DSC wants to showcase the building as a design hub, to showcase, to stimulate and inform, to promote and to feature. My interpretation of it is that it will be the main source of design related information and more. In other words, I mean that this building shall be the place where information goes in and out from. You receive information first hand here. And at the same time, the information goes out from this place. To emphasize on this, the most apt tenant for the anchor design studio must be a renowned exhibition designer like Hans dieter schaal. Thus, I chose him as the anchor design studio tenant to design the most effective exhibitions for whatever demands.

From this, I came up with my tree concept. Firstly, it is a response to the site. By having a tree concept, I am tying the hill together with the building and having it immersed into all the greenery.

Secondly, it ties back to my interpretation of the client's visions. A tree concept. Everyone knows that a tree has a trunk and then everything branches out. As such, I have a main core which is the'trunk' where I've placed the lift core. And all the core activities shall be placed by the core and the secondary spaces will be branched out.

And in addition to that, I want to show the idea of the information dispersing out. This is how I came out with this concept model. As such it shows the random directions of how the information will go out.

In a tree, the nutrients, minerals and water travel up through the trunk and are distributed to the living cells. In the middle of the core, I have a void. An atrium. It will enable fresh air to circulate into the lobbies and where stale air rises and clears from the place. Thus, this atrium signifies the concept of how the tree trunk works.

Now I shall bring you through the spaces of the building. On the 1st storey, I have the covered concourse, the tourist information centre, shops and the public Foodcourt. The covered concourse is situated where pedestrians have the most convenient access to the site. The roof will be made of glass to give a more open and welcome feeling. Right from the entrance, there will be a water feature that will lead the visitors in and guide them to a water fall at the foot of fort canning hill. By doing so, the waters from the hill flow down and through the building to the streets, tying everything together. The public Foodcourt will be located here and at this area the walls are made of glass to enable the people to enjoy a view of the waterfall and also listen to the soothing sound of the water while having their meals. There are shops located in the hill, to add on to the concept of immersing the building in the greenery.

The escalators from the 1st storey will lead the users up to a cafe on the 2nd storey. The same thing applies. The patrons of the cafe will be able to enjoy a view of the waterfall from the top. From there, the people can move on to the design library and at the same time, users of the library will be able to move from the library to the cafe. That’s adopting the idea of many libraries in Singapore nowadays, the woodlands central library for example. Where students study in the quiet atmosphere of the library and at the same time enjoy a cup of coffee.

The design library is divided into two parts. One shall be where the books are shelved which is on the 2nd storey and this place will be air-conditioned. There will be an internal staircase where people can go up to the 2nd storey of the library which is located on the 3rd storey. This area is the reading and studying area which will be naturally ventilated.

The reading area of the design library shares the storey with the part of the anchor design studio. As I've mentioned earlier, the anchor design studio tenant is an exhibition designer. Thus, this storey will be where all the designing work takes place. On the 4th storey, we have the 2nd part of the studio, this level will be where the designs take on forms. It'll be where they test and try out and make the exhibition materials. On the same storey, I have placed the multi-purpose rooms so it can be easily accessible for them should they need more space.

In some cases, the anchor tenant may need to work with some of the tenants of the start-up offices and they will also need the workshop to work on the exhibition cases and what nots. Thus, on the next storey, I placed some of the start-up offices and the workshop, and also the meeting room.

Then we proceed to the 6th storey. Here we have the auditorium and part of the exhibition gallery. These spaces are placed together because at times the holder of the exhibition may need to give a talk on the exhibits before the exhibition opens. Thus, this will enable the visitors to move easily.

The exhibition gallery goes up to the 7th storey. The façade of the gallery will be a mixture of cladded metal and glass. As the exhibition demands, blinds may be added to make the place darker or in certain cases, exhibits can be placed by the glass walls to portray as staged exhibitionalism.

Here, we have more start-up offices. And on the 8th storey, some more start up offices. And of course the DSC headquarters. The canopy, the very top of a tree, is another whole world of life that is the most important part of the forest community. From here, the DSC controls the on going of the building.

If you look here, you'll realize the large space. It is to allow the hill to 'flow' into the building premises. And also, you'll notice that most roofs are roof gardens and terraces and other parts of the floor slabs are extended out to serve as planter boxes. Like with the water feature on the 1st storey, this idea is also to bring nature down to the commuters by letting it flow through the building, tying the context together.

Now I shall go on to structure. Some of the columns come down straight while others slant from one intersection of the grid to the next. And in addition, there will be some slanted feature columns to have the play of shadows as one moves through the building. I'll be using Trapezoidal Heavy Duty composite floor slab and Hot rolled Universal beam for the building.

Most of the spaces in the building will be naturally ventilated. And like I've mentioned earlier the main air flow will be through the central atrium. Some spaces will act as a funnel for the wind when the space opens up to a larger area.

Thats about it.

_ling. laments | 9:44 PM