Studio Seven

Located in the heart of Tanjong Pager lies this forgotten piece of architecture. It is sandwiched on a little hill behind Tanjong Pagar Complex and Duxton Plain. Invisible from the main road, this old swimming pool was closed many years ago and forgotton.

I first noticed an old single storey art deco styled building from my office at Amara Hotel. It intrigued me as in a fast paced and land scarce Singapore, there was still an abandoned structure sitting on valuable land located in the Central Business District.

Yan Kit Swimming Pool was the first public pool in Singapore. It was named after a Cantonese Dentist, Look Yan Kit who was trained in Hong Kong and subsequently came to Singapore in 1877.

It was built in 1952 and officially opened in December 1952 by Sir John Nichols the Governor of Singapore at that time. The pool was altered into an Olympic sized pool in the 1990s. In 2001, the pool was closed due to leaks that developed. It was too costly to repair and maintain. Another factor it was closed was due to losing many visitors to the newer public pools with bigger and better facilities.

The future of the Yan Kit Swimming Complex is uncertain. The Singapore Sports Council now manages it and have requested for proposals from interested parties to redevelope it in September 2003 and again in May 2005. With nothing arising from that, it looks like the Yan Kit Swimming Complex will disappear from our built environment very soon.

In Singapore, it is against the low to call oneself an architect if they are not registered with the Board of Architects. There are no clear guidelines to what a fresh graduate should call themselves on the internet.

After an enquiry with BOA, the four recommended titles are as follows:

Architectural Assistant
Architectural Graduate
Architectural Associate
Architectural Coordinator

The four recommended titles sound like a property agent, project manager or draftsperson. I can understand the value of the name architect as a profession being diluted with other industries borrowing it. Just do a search for architect in an online job agency and you’ll find a whole list of jobs in other sectors.

If a computer programmer can call themselves a Systems Architect and a ship builder a Naval Architect, could someone with a degree in architecture call themselves a Graduate Architect? Architectural makes it sound quite distant from Architect. It’s more like someone who is more closely involved in the supply or construction of buildings. I guess that’s an additional motivation to register with the board.

Singaporeans growing up in the 80’s will be familiar with Haw Par Villa and Tang Dynasty. They were the places where families would visit during weekends. However, both places face an uncertain future and it lost it’s popularity to other spots like Downtown East. 

A recent fire at Tang Dynasty just highlights the state of disrepair the buildings are in. It is now earmarked for demolition by the end of 2008. Haw Par Villa is now surrounded by construction of the MRT circle line train station with it’s future uncertain. 

I only have a faint recollection these places in during my childhood. In Singapore, what is not successful will be replaced in the constant march for progress. Perhaps it’s time to pay these places a visit one last time before they are totally lost or changed beyond recognition.

At the School of Architecture, University of Tasmania, we have a module called Learning By Making or LBM for short. Sometimes I feel it should be called Learning By Making Mistake.

Russia during the 70’s was a quiet period for many architects. Due to the social climate of that era, architects could only design buildings that never got built. Hence, the term ‘paper architecture’ is commonly used to describe the designs of those architects as they tested their ideals and dreams in competitions abroad many of which would never get built.

To a certain extent, there can be no architecture without paper and pencil. Designers often start thinking about a problem and finding the solution through sketching. We test our ideas and learn through our mistakes for what appears to be the perfect solution often ends with nasty surprises.

The actual hands on building and construction in the module does not limit the design to become bland and practical. This process actually widens our vision and knowledge and helps us to solve future design problems creatively using the tools available at hand. At least for once during the course, students have a chance to create something tangible and not ‘digital architecture’ with the predominance of 2D and 3D CAD modelling in design.

As I make the transition from student life to the working world, the stress of getting good grades suddenly seem so immaterial as I reflect on how far I’ve come and the things I’ve still got to learn. No more paper or digital architecture for me. It’s going to get exciting and I’m looking forward to the challengers ahead. Wish me luck…

After the final submission and presentation, many friends felt lost. There were no more datelines and objectives to meet. My housemates and I, all architecture students, spent the day cleaning up the aftermath of the model making. There were many pieces of off cuts and other materials. A few of us over estimated and there were many sheets of card left over.

With the new found time on our hands, some people wanted to get away from architecture. However, something was ticking inside my brain. Before long, the pencil and sketchbook came out again and I was busy doodling my idea for a little project.

I decided to make a little light box as a souvenir for my lecturers that have helped to shape and guide my architectural education over the years.

The material of choice was 1mm gray board which had to interlock together to form the box. An energy efficient LED is used to light the inside of the box. The LED is rated at 13000MCD and runs for many hours on the 2 AAA batteries. Small holes are pierced to form tiny dots that form text and patterns. Some left over paint is used to finish off the box.

It’s amazing how much information can be stored and read in various ways from just tiny dots and pixels. Pixels are used in computing to output information onto monitors and prints while braille is a series of dots to represent the alphabets for people with visual disabilities.

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An interesting pattern is formed with a hidden message below.

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I’ve been cutting the site contours since yesterday evening. Suddenly I am seeing contour lines everywhere. The extension wire sure caught my eye. Perhaps it was the bright orange colour.

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[newline]Another thing just occurred to me. In University, students are taught to make models to help visualize and communicate ideas. It might be the stuff in the yellow bottle that is making my mind imagine things a little more clearly.

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My room smells even though the windows are open and I am tempted to close them because of the cold weather outside. According to the little weather widget, it’s 5 degrees outside now.

Who said architecture was a safe profession? Playing with sharp objects all the time and surrounded by toxic chemicals.