URBAN STRIPS IN TRANSITION: MASTER PLAN PROPOSAL ALONG KEPPEL ROAD, SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore a new urban typology to enhance pedestrian and programmatic connections within the city. It questions the conventional method of parcelisation and proposes an alternative approach through the introduction of strips. The site is situated adjacent to the Singapore Railway Station along the track at Tanjong Pagar. It once belonged to Malaysia, but was returned to Singapore in exchange for other land plots in 2010. The train service will be relocated and the station will be conserved, while the parcel of land has to make way for future development. Currently, the plot is positioned at the interface of all the different urban activities. Yet due to its strict boundary, there is a major separation of the plot from its surrounding context. Hence, this thesis investigates how this piece of land, made obsolete through the change in program, is able to fuse with future development. Through the introduction of strip parcelisation, the master plan proposal aims to integrate the building with pedestrian and infrastructural network. Each building strip in the master plan proposal will act as an urban connector within the city as it reaches out to its surrounding. The architecture design focuses on one of the strip parcels to illustrate how mixed development, including residential, can satisfy the master plan intention. On top of that, public circulation establishes the layers of urban connection, and frees the resulting residential areas to an exhilarating city view.