EVENT-SPACE, THE : A WATERFRONT ENTERTAINMENT HUB

Abstract

The thesis process started from the search for a new age entertainment entity in the 21 st century that reflects the new phenomenon of electronics in the digital epoch, inspired by a futuristic vision of urban entertainment. The challenge of the project is to locate this new phenomenon in an integrated form with existing entertainment forms and the external environment to create an entertainment hub of the future that is contextual to the present. Instead of perceiving digital space as a dichotomous element in spatial and social terms by its offer of an alternative environment, the new entity attempts to interface the electronic realm with the external environment, in this case the urban waterfront, whereby the inert nature of eentertainment often isolates from the latter. The future entertainment hub is also the interface between the new e-forms of entertainment and the old forms of entertainment, often divorced from each other and the former from the natural environment. The traditional forms extends itself to the new and recombine for a chemistry of new and old. Hence, synergy occurs at the junction of the new immaterial and ever-evolving nature, at the intersection of new and old refreshed forms of entertainment, finally reaching a dialogue with each other into a synergised social platform. The site of the project is also at the transitional zone of the old and the new - old/new downtown. A new waterfront entertainment hub is proposed at this junction, to revitalise the once-glorious Clifford Pier area into an enriching water place, ready for the embracement of future (Marina Bay waterfront) yet to be formed. The vision of the project is to connect the old to the new, as an urban connector of old downtown to future fabric at the new Marina waterfront, as well as to link the new program to what nature has to offer. It is the in-between space, between the city and nature, between land and water, between new and old.