CONTEXTUALIZING THE MODERN AGORA OF KNOWLEDGE, FACULTY BUILDING FOR UNIVERSITY SCHOLAR'S PROGRAM OF THE NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis seeks to explore the resultant programmatic and architectural consequence of a paradigm shift in pedagogy that reflects the new knowledge era as adopted by the University Scholar's Programme (USP) through its proposed erection of a new faculty building at the National University of Singapore (NUS). The investigation seeks to give expression to a new type in campus planning, where the dynamic and fluid nature of knowledge processes are abstracted into socio-spatial strategies that attempts to instigate knowledge exchange | transfer and learning opportunities. Here, the USP and NUS community is treated as basic knowledge resource in engendering a culture of learning and creativity through exchanges in skills and knowledge; manifesting spaces that promote interaction opportunities for such exchanges to occur. As an elite institution, this thesis posits that scholars and the general campus community are also better served by mitigating USP institutional exclusivity; promoting interaction and coexistence within a vibrant, engaging environment through shared communal space, activity and program. Social networks that consist of two circulatory spines run parallel along the site and form the conduit for constant people flow across the proposal, where movement forms the basis for the proliferation of interaction opportunities. Slow spaces of interaction, coupled with alternative learning environments are plugged into this network where visual and phenomenological linkages are established. The proposed location at the junction of Lower Kent Ridge Road and Kent Ridge Crescent, where major transport links converge, further enhances its latent accessibility to the campus and its prominence as the premier learning environment.