Southeast Asia Building – May-June 2018

plans, Precinct plans as well as the next

Block plans and Floor plans. And then

you build them and get further feedback

from the estate managers and residents’

complaints.

Architectural design and urban

planning are both science and art. The

scientific aspect requires research and the

artistic aspect depends on the aesthetic

judgement of individual architects and

planners. Evidently, the scientific aspect

requires a lot of hard analytical work. I

told my staff during those days that every

line we drew would affect the lives of

millions of people, every day, at every hour

of the day. We must deliver something

that makes their quality of life good. That

was also my demand on myself. So, even

for a simple HDB flat layout, I did not

allow a single architect to independently

change the floor plan by herself or himself.

Every few months, we would sit down to

sieve through the research findings by

the different committees, discuss the

solutions and make amendments. We

treated the amendments to Floor Plan

Neighbourhood and New Town layouts as

laboratory projects. Only after we got the

layout scientifically sound, did we then

ask our architects to design the building

elevations of their choice. As for the choice

of colours, our architects were also free

to decide, preferably reflecting the flavor

of our tropical flora and fauna. No extra

cost was to be spent on adding frills to the

building design; we wanted the floor area

to be as big as necessary, while keeping

Changdao County Concept Master Plan

Land Area: 32 square kilometres

Planned Population: 0.09 million

Completion: 2013

Marina Bay Cruise Centre
GFA: 29,900 square metres
Completion: 2012
WAF & Inside Awards (Shortlist)

ARCHITECT’S CORNER

MAY-JUNE 2018 SEAB 103