MEDIA FACADES IN SINGAPORE : PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES

Abstract

Media façades are the emerging trend in most commercial buildings in Singapore today. The façade is activated through the use of mechanical, projection, illuminant or display technology. The advance in digital technology in the last few decades not only provides us with an opportunity to create dynamic façades, which may provide additional leasing opportunities for advertisements, but also gives our urban quality and streetscape a new facelift where façades are no longer static. Despite the adoption of media façade becoming a common option for developers and/or designers in Singapore, there is a lack of study and analytical work of the problems and challenges faced by them from the initial decision making process to design, construction and eventually the maintenance of the media façade. Moreover, if the media façade is not properly integrated with the building design and the urban context, it will look like an afterthought “stick on” element. In Singapore context, media façade is a relatively new intervention. This dissertation aims to understand the problems and challenges that may arise in the designing, construction and maintenance stages of the building cycle, how they were eventually overcame, as well as the crucial factors to note when designing, building and integrating the media façades in tropical Singapore. By understanding these procedures, problems and how they were overcame might suggest new ideas for designers to design well integrated media façades in the future. These were done through interviews that had been conducted with architects, façade consultant, façade specialist, façade installer and the main contractor.