AN ICON OF MEDIA AND KNOWLEDGE: REGIONAL LIBRARY IN BISHAN TOWN CENTER

Abstract

This thesis looks at the role of the library in new town centers, which presents the opportunity of a re-thinking of the traditional typology of the library. Opposing the trend of camouflaging the library admidst a façade treatment of commercialism, the thesis is interested in re-instituting the 'place-ness' of an institution of learning. The 'place-ness' involves the recognition of certain types of icons specific to a location, the location being Bishan Town Center. Here, the three icons have been identified. Memory Icons (m) being events or specific programs that one revisits based on their previous experiences. Infrastructural Icons (I) being the existing structure in the new town and Knowledge Icons (k) stems from the way knowledge is stored to the way knowledge is disseminated. The characteristics of these three icons will thus mould the library into an Icon of its own being, a Multi-Icon. Experience through and around the Library is a choreography of the three icons, expressed through the use of surfaces. These three icons help to determine the nature of the surface of the multi-icon. The 'place-ness’ of a location is in some latent manner, recorded in the surface of the site, the ground, the territory for action. Different surfaces register different events, moulding the paths and engaging the minds of its users.