BORDERLINE : INTERFACE WITH COMMUNITY INDUCTION CENTRE + DORMITORY FOR FOREIGN WORKERS

Abstract

The intention of this thesis is to re-look at the housing conditions, socio-cultural familiarity and needs, and explore the possibilities of the type of interface between the marginalised group of Indian foreign workers, with the broader community. Rather than dismissing this as an insignificant marginal zone, there is a need to dwell into the notion of detenritorialisation, to understand that the city is a continuous fabric, in order to see the connection and contiguity between groups. This leads to the investigation of alternative central locations for the accommodations, instead of locating the foreign workers in a ghetto-like compound, isolated from the larger community. This project does not romanticise or idealise the marginal guest worker culture in the context of Singapore, but rather, it highlights an additional culture and social group being mapped into place, and also the symbiotic relations that have been established over the years. The OBJECTIVES of the thesis will include the investigation of: • Selection of an appropriate site where superimpositions of interactions between Indian foreign workers and locals, are already imbued on the site. Currently, the flea market and Sunday Pasar at Sungei Road reflect the layers of activities that have left traces of interweaving of interactions, where locals and foreign workers forged symbiotic relationships and contact over time. • To re-look at the public space and interface of the public and the enclave, through architecture arid programme, so as to bring out the natural differences; and to develop an environment formed by the interaction of different social and cultural groups and practices. This aims to permit a social experience, through the depicting of the social reality. • Use of architectural representation to provide linkage with the social reality indicating that the overlapping of other cultures as a positive condition • To explore the formal structure and form addressing the notion of transition of the guest workers in relation to the local society. Using the existing interactions at Sungei Road as a platform in the issue of integration and interface of foreign workers within the urban fabric, and broader community. In other words, architecture is expressed as cultural boundary to bring about the contiguity between two different culture groups. This integration addresses some of the psychological and social implications for the foreign workers, who suffer from marginalization, culture shock, sense of isolation and disjuncture, and lack of privacy. • To design for a dignified and meaningful environment in the housing of these foreign workers with specifics to the traditional use of space. This includes exploring the different levels of communal spaces that will provide a sense of community and anchor, to the transient lives of the Indian workers. The FOCUS of the thesis will explore: • The different hierarchy of spaces, scale of interactions and thresholds, from the individual bed space, to the interaction at public spaces, as one of the key strategies in allowing appropriate integration and separation at the interface, in a more complex yet coherent urban environment where different communities can overlap, and establish group identities. • The traditional use of space in a high density, high rise context. The habitat and social spaces that has been carved out for this housing explores the use of platforms as verandahs, the extensions of space, the idea of ‘chowk’ and communal activities as the focus of life. Unique to this particular group of Indians is the alternative micro social spaces and niches that they have adapted and carved for themselves in the face of this relatively new urban setting. Staircases, sitting platforms under trees are used as the focus of small group interactions in place of traditional gathering spaces.