REUSE OR TABULA RASA? AN INVESTIGATION ON THE FUTURE OF RAMP-UP FACTORIES IN JURONG WEST

Abstract

Jurong was selected in 1961 to be Singapore’s first industrial estate. Since then, the pressure of redevelopment at the regional hub of Jurong East, has instigated a rapid change in the estate’s extent and mono-functional landscape. Projecting into the future, it is hypothesised that further pressures would facilitate the gentrification of Jurong from an industrial to urban zone. This scenario would imply the wide-scale obsolescence of industrial buildings in the area, specifically the ramp-up factory typology that is unique to land-scarce Singapore. As opposed to building replacement, the paper aims to testify adaptive reuse as a more environmental means of redevelopment, by prototyping a framework of strategies based on literature, precedents, and fieldwork. It is revealed that to enable reuse, social and economic value needs to be achieved as well. This is assessed against the precedents and it is identified that there are many inadvertent consequences of reuse in reality, beyond the control of urban planning or architecture. It is also established that the initiator of the project is the deciding factor, in facilitating reuse in the first instance. Thus, the resultant prototype of an urban and architectural framework only outlines the typology’s capacity for reuse. The framework is based on the scale of reuse (determined by the initiator) and size of the building footprint. It addresses the programmatic aspect of design rather than the execution or aesthetics. The outline is then applied as a deployable model, which proposes an outreach of the factories to facilitate surrounding growth of new build within a larger connected network of functions. Lastly, it is construed that the base inquiry has a multiplier effect of generating more questions and reflects the multidisciplinary nature of the architecture profession. It is unable to champion a sole (environmental) agenda without the consideration of consequences. A postscript is also undertaken at the end of the paper to reflect on the pedagogical process and its transferability to further studies.