PLACE AND PROGRESS : THE QUEENSTOWN CENTRE PROJECT

Abstract

This thesis deals with the fundamental connection between keeping the essence of place and the impending need of new development. The project aims to investigate the issue of active conservation, through the retaining of significant cultural - historic and existing urban conditions, and the sensitive introduction of new architecture to rejuvenate a dying place. The vehicle chosen is a town hall, an administrative and cultural facility serving the general public, a pragmatic place on one hand for paying bills and consultation with the authorities, and an instrument of culture and social entertainment on the other. It is proposed to be located at the heart of Queenstown Centre, the first HDB town centre of independent Singapore. The proposed development (s) deals with the basics of responding to the existing contextual conditions of significant buildings in an expressive and composed urban fabric and the rejuvenation of the town centre through the processes of accentuation, connection and intensification. The building serves to accentuate the essential elements in the urban fabric, providing a pragmatic and physical means of connecting the loosely composed urban framework, through the sensitive intensification and infill of the site.