MESOSCAPE 6: CHEK JAWA CENTRE FOR MARINE ECOLOGY

Abstract

The thesis evolves from a passion for a place, the dilemma it feces and the urban threats that are hampering its sustainability and relevance to the current milieu. Pulau Ubin is an offshore island located northeast of mainland Singapore. It is home to various species of £auna and flora, some of which are very rare. Not only rich in nature, Ubin is also known to be Singapore's last rural frontier, as it still holds a decent rural population. Many urbanites flock to Ubin for a retreat from the fast and furious Hfestyle of mainland Singapore. But things have changed lately. Unfortunately, as Singapore's population density intensifies and the needs for development press on, Ubin has become the target to ease the squeeze on mainland Singapore. Future planning sees extensive reclamation work and eradication of valuable green belts within the island. Already, much clearing has been done. The thesis evaluates all future plans and presents ideas in a three-tier hypothesis: re-examining, restrategizing and re-proposing. It tackles land use proposals and formulate strategies using a system of matrix, devised and inspired from the EIA's Leopoki The matrix is a flexible yet thorough device which is able to perceive details upon contraction and cover macroscopically upon expansion. Through the idea of the Mesoscape that entails the matrix evaluation, the thesis believes it is still not too late to save Ubin from the quagmire of insensitive planning. The thesis then, through the development of the sixth mesoscape (the most urgent and current) investigates the possibilities of devising a model of development in an ecologically sensitive sites? that may at the end of the day be applicable to other scenarios in question. The Mesoscape is an intermediate domain (the thesis identified 6)? resolving conflict of ideas between land (nature/ environment) and culture/built form. It negates hierarchy between building and nonbuilding. From here, the thesis delves into the concept of interweaving, where it attains that the merging of the two domains (nature and culture) should not be through fusion, but more meaningfully? through weaving. Each may exist on its own, retaining character and quality, even when merged or juxtaposed.