Eugene Chieng 2004 COLORBOND® steel Biennale Prize Winner

Project Summary

The future meaning of what it is to be Singaporean is most clearly seen in the arts, where multiculturalism is most influential. The agenda is to address these issues and in turn to provide for an otherwise culturally inauthentic Singapore with a new creative and participatory spatial environment.

The spatial model of Singapore has been of such a nature that ground level activities and events are driven by what is above and at subterranean level due to scarcity of land. The difference between above or underground is no longer relevant where there is only simultaneity. The proposition is to engage with the more anonymous zones of interstitiality by making imaginative explorations of different levels of territories.

The proposed experimental centre for the visual arts is envisioned as a decentralised production; local, communal in its focus and highly important in terms of Singapore life creating an architecture of harmony and equity.

Jury Comments

This scheme was distinguished by a particularly principled mission statement which established reassuring objectives. The challenge as identified by the student is to create meaningful and moral public spaces in a city that is presently spiralling into over-development. It is an even handed presentation involving both thorough primary analysis of the existing Singaporean conditions and an elegant proposal to reinforce the cultural life of the city. It provides an alternative to the contemporary single icon building solution, as it creates an urban platform for Singaporean life. The presentation was enhanced by the analysis of a built model and whimsical collages.