Tanjong Pagar Backyard

 

Above Tanjong Pagar Mrt Station and along a main path of circulation lies a forgotten empty patch of grass. With surrounding plots of land giving rise to new offices and hotel buildings in an already commercialised part of Tanjong Pagar, we saw the potential for this patch of grass to serve a greater purpose.

 

Our design aims to provide a social space in the centre of the commercial district that allows workers and the public to spill out of the buildings and reconnect with the urban environment and one another, hence the concept of a backyard.

 

Some of the problems we tackled ware the lack of additional food and social spaces to cater for the growing population of the site. We envision Tanjong Pagar Backyard to serve as a lunchtime seating area for the office crowd as an extension of Tanjong Pagar Plaza food centre, and a social space at night to encourage the forming of new connections and the exchanging of ideas.

 

We designed the layout to continue the urban connector from the MRT Station to the traffic light, something which the plot was previously obstructing, allowing seamless and safe flow of pedestrians which ensures that Tanjong Pagar Backyard will never be empty.

 

The design of the social spaces and urban connector consist of a variety of hexagonal modules which interlock to form a pathway or a social space. These range from completely open social spaces to enclosed ones, providing varying levels of privacy. They also vary in height of 150mm, allowing us to create a gradually undulating terrain to give more texture to the site, while as a whole, maintaining visual connectivity from the MRT Station to Tanjong Pagar Plaza food centre. These modules also allow flexibility in rearrangement should the need ever arise.

 

 

URA PubliCity My Ideas for Public Spaces: Forgotten spaces

The second edition of the My Ideas for Public Spaces invited the public to submit creative ideas for underused or overlooked pockets of public spaces in our city. 

More than 150 submissions were received, and 17 submissions were awarded. Among the awarded entries, there are eight winners, eight merit awards and one special mention.

 

Jury Citation:

The proposal is commended for its potential to redefine the identity of the entire neighbourhood. The designer’s very sensitive response to the existing context, maintaining certain areas of hardscape, acknowledging their importance to the neighbourhood, and subtly using larger trees to create pedestrian connectivity is particularly praiseworthy.