REGIONAL COACH TERMINAL

Abstract

The Singapore Tourist Promotion Board has just recently welcomed its four millionth visitor through the gates of the Changi International Airport. Much discontentment was subsequently expressed by the general public which felt that far too much emphasis has been placed on air travel, whilst visitors coming by rail and road were simply ignored. The problem with coach travel is most acute. There is at present no centralised terminal for coaches. Passengers merely drop-off at some designated stretch of road convenient to these coach companies. There is neither that sense of arrival or departure for the travellers coming in and out of the country by coaches. Worst still, basic conveniences like telephone booths, toilets and small shops are often not located near these drop-off areas. This is detrimental considering the adverse impressions these tourists coming by coaches are going to have of Singapore The proposal would be to built a Regional Coach Terminal to bring together all existing inter-state and regional bus services to a centralised location to eradicate the existing problem. The site chosen for the Regional Coach is an urban site that has been zoned for commercial development. The project will try to integrate the Regional Coach Terminal into the commercial complex with the underlining belief that such an integration would benefit and complement each other. This thesis is therefore set up to demonstrate THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE AS THE MEDIATOR BETWEEN MAN AND MACHINE. The Regional Coach Terminal will then have to respond to the different functional, spatial, circulatory and environmental requirements of people and coaches. The thesis will also seek to explore an appropriate architectural idiom for the design of such a terminal to achieve an image that is respective and reflective of its functions. The approach of my thesis to explore such a role of architecture will be sub-divided into the following headings:- * Movement * Sense of Arrival and Departure * An Appropriate Architectural Language for the Terminal * Coach Terminal in an Urban Commercial Setting.