NEIGHBOURHOOD / PASIR PANJANG POWER DISTRICT
Writer: Jennifer Eveland
79 proposals were submitted in the ideas competition inviting fresh ideas from professionals and students to envision the future of the Pasir Panjang Power District. It is the first piece of the Greater Southern Waterfront to be developed in the next five years. The 30-kilometre waterfront stretching from Marina East to Pasir Panjang will be transformed into a new major gateway and location for urban living along Singapore’s southern coast progressively over the next 40 to 50 years.
The district was Singapore’s former powerhouse, supplying essential power to fuel the push towards industrialisation in the early post-war years. Located at the southern coastline of Singapore, two decommissioned power station buildings ('A' and 'B'), oil and gas tanks and other buildings such as a pump house and a staff apartment block remain on this 15-hectare site. Vacated in the 1980s, the tranquil waterfront site has the potential to be turned into a vibrant, mixed-use lifestyle destination.
The competition, Power-Up Pasir Panjang by URA and the Singapore Land Authority that ran from April to June 2019 sought ideas for a concept master plan to guide the rejuvenation of the entire district and ways to re-purpose the Power Station while celebrating its heritage. Ten winning entries were exhibited from 13 January to 7 February 2020 together with the other submissions. These contributed to a Request for Information exercise released then to further refine the parameters of the site for future development.
We caught up with five winning teams1 from the competition on their inspiration and ideas for this former powerhouse.
1 The ideas from the five winning teams in this feature are selected highlights from their proposals. Descriptions of their ideas have also been edited for clarity and brevity. Images for each winning proposal are from the respective teams.
Category and Prize Participant: Re-imagining the Power District (Concept Master Plan); open category second prize | Jonathan Poh, Principal Architect, Provolk Architects
What drew you to the site?
Jonathan: I was blown away by the beautiful red-brick facade and flared columns at the entrance. What struck me was also its proximity to the sea, the views it offered, the copious amount of space and the apartment block on the hill beside the power station.
Jonathan: Being by the sea and flanked by higher grounds, a key concern for the district was the rising flood levels. This is similar to other heritage areas such as Dakota Crescent where the modern buildings were built below our national minimum platform level. Thus the idea of activated raised sea berms was proposed to mitigate future rising sea levels and simultaneously linking the higher ground where the apartment block is located on the western flank to the seafront on the eastern side. These berms can help carve out a sea front park fronting the sea. Another idea was to parcel out the land into zones as it would be challenging to offer such a large site for development under a 30-year lease. With the parcellation, we could phase development, focusing on key areas first and offering these spaces to local designers.
How do you envision the public experiencing the spaces?
Jonathan: I believe that these spaces should be given back to the people and enjoyed by everyone because these were the bricks that our forefathers laid. They represent the grit and determination of our nation. People will be inspired by the sheer mass and beauty of the red-brick power station structure and can carve out new experiences and memories for themselves as they walk through the new public spaces created outside and inside of the existing buildings.
Category and Prize Participant: Re-imagining the Power District (Concept Master Plan); tertiary category first prize | Hendriko Teguh Sangkanparan, Nur Fadhilah Binte Nordin, Sally Tan and Lun Ci Min, Singapore University of Technology and Design
The team: We were fascinated by the sheer size and the striking quality of the power station complex, multiple supporting metal tanks and large steel structures preserved in time. This offers a huge opportunity for the site to be driven by ecology or nature. Its location near future residential developments and the Mapletree Business City also lends itself to being a potential community hub in future.
Why is water featured strongly in your proposal?
The team: As the site is located along the coast, we saw a huge potential to incorporate water into our proposal. Water supply has always been a national imperative in Singapore, so we wanted to rethink how water plays a part in town planning. It became a strategy to create synergy between the urban landscape and its inhabitants.
You see the sea level rise as an opportunity.
The team: With the annual rise in sea level, more defensive interventions such as sea walls, gabions, and break water are implemented. This may not be sustainable. Our proposal instead embraces sea level change by creating spaces that adapt to and welcomes sea level transformations, inviting spontaneous activities that make the littoral edges not only useful but engaging.
The team:We hope to show people how their actions relate to nature and water sustainability and show through first-hand experience on how the idea of sustainability can be considered in the design of our physical spaces. With vehicular access limited to the fringes, the site and activities within are intimate to the human scale so pedestrians can explore and enjoy the place at a slower pace.
Category and Prize Participant: Re-imagining the Power District (Concept Master Plan); open category third prize | Charles Wee, Design Principal & Director, CJWA Architects
Charles: I was impressed with the scale and robustness of the structures. Like a formation, the structures commanded a significant presence on the waterfront. Set between two verdant hills is a fertile valley nestled in between, it made me ponder about the connections and possibilities within.
One of your ideas is an immersion of green spaces.
Charles: I was inspired by the hilly greens on both sides of the site and envisioned these greens blending in with the site to create a form of urban overgrowth, blurring the distinction between the nearby park connector and the site. Taking this idea further, a ‘green blanket’ is proposed as a form of a garden superimposed on the whole site, filling the open spaces. It stretches and mediates the height disparity with the two hills through stepped platforms; it also extends out to the coast, creating a seamless integration of public spaces set in nature.
You suggested the materiality of the site be limited by a few materials.
Charles: Walking around the site, what caught my eye was the prevalence of brick on the buildings. I wanted to retain this and expound on this as a unifying motif, to create an emotive experience for users. Materials, patterns and combinations of these evoke certain feelings and memories in people’s minds. I thought that the imagery and texture of brick and steel can make the place memorable and distinct.
Charles: I envision users to be exploring and enjoying the many different flexible and adaptable vibrant spaces with great excitement and wonder. It should be at the heart of its occupants, with the common vision of serving (and hopefully exceeding) their varied intents and purposes.
Category and Prize Participant: Re-purposing the historic Power Station A; tertiary category second prize | Chui Yee Chin and Yany Chan Ziqi, National University of Singapore
The team: Spatially, its large volume and the strong linearity of the Power Station A was the most striking. Having the opportunity to reopen and shape the experiences of this unfamiliar chapter of Singapore’s history to a generation of younger Singaporeans is an untapped potential we were excited to explore.
You have proposed many open, flexible and mixed use spaces.
The team: We drew on our own experiences in sharing different kinds of interactive spaces, putting ourselves in the shoes of users to figure out which kind of spaces would be best for fostering interaction amongst them, and thinking about the types of spaces we wish to see in Singapore. One of our greatest challenges was figuring out how the power station’s large volume could be filled with something as intimate as interactions between people without feeling intimidating. Our approach created different zones to accommodate different levels of interaction and break down the monumentality of the area. Locating myriad smaller programmes in the large open area still allowed people to appreciate the broader sense of festivities. How do you envision the public experiencing the spaces?
The team: Fields of work are becoming increasingly integrated and inter-connected. Interactions with people with different specialisations will allow us to deepen our knowledge about different subjects and develop more well-rounded and innovative ideas. We chose programmes which were collaborative such as learning, performance, exhibition and start-up spaces. Spaces defined by the colourful fabric on the ground floor and the open and giant steps provide for interactions at different scales - from intimate discussion bubbles to small group breakout and flexible learning spaces.
Much of Pasir Panjang’s industrial past has been defined by the use of heavy machinery and tools. We propose to re-think the creative spaces that focuses on people. Colourful sound-proofing fabric can provide a flexible and fun way to define the spaces for activities at different scales while keeping the large volumes of the two halls open. The buzz of the turbine and boiler halls echoes the myriad of colours and activities at the Pasir Panjang container terminal and the translucent characteristic of the fabric offers a spectacle to the users who might be transiting through the space. — The Team, adapted from the competition submission.
Category and Prize Participant: Re-purposing the historic Power Station A; professional category special mention | Swee Yew Yong (Formwerkz Architects), Dang Bao Bao (AWP Architects) and Stephan Shen Yi Zhe (ID Architects)
The team: The building looked old and abandoned, yet, at the same time there was something very charming about the brick facade and the interior steel structure. What intrigued us was the challenge of how to open up this brick box without damaging too much of its original facade/building structure.
A key aspect of your proposal is to use the building as a creative hub.
The team: There are interesting similarities between the processes of generating electricity and creative works. Both are products of an IPO (input-process-output) model, requiring “fuel” to initiate production, and both critical to the progress of Singapore. The old and new are reflected in the spatial organisation of our design. The previously demolished chimneys, where fuel was burnt, are residential towers for short-term stay. The boiler house, where water was heated to produce steam, is a co-working studio space for artists. The turbine hall, where electricity was generated, is an exhibition hall for collaborative works. The flow of creative professionals is the fuel which is being constantly depleted and replenished, “empowering” the neighbourhood through exciting exhibition events.
The team: As a creative industries hub, the building’s primary access should be open and inviting. We proposed to lower the building’s external pavement and remove part of the facade to create an open plaza through which visitors enter the turbine hall and art exhibition space. As this facade was the former electrical output location, visitors will symbolically carry their inspiration with them as they enter and leave.