ARCHITECT VANS

Hainan Village - Remaking Our Neighbourhood

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Location           Hainan Village - Hougang N1, Singapore

Type                 Landscape Design

Client                Singapore Housing & Development Board (HDB)

Status               Completed (Early 2017)

Role                  Main Designer (SQFT Architects)

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In Essence

The Remaking Our Heartland (ROH) initiative aims to rejuvenate public housing estates to bring about a holistic transformation. The common areas in the Neighbourhood Centre would be upgraded and revitalised to create vibrancy, strengthen the identity and promote neighbourly interaction. ‘Hainanese Village’ is one of the HDB Neighbourhood Centres in Hougang Town identified to be upgraded. Its name draws reference from the Hainanese Village Market & Food Centre which is a popular dining and shopping place in Hougang. Inspired by the concept of a tropical island, pockets of foliage, accentuated with coconuts and palm trees are introduced at strategic locations to lend a distinctive character to the Neighbourhood Centre.

 

The residents and visitors can also look forward to enjoying the idyllic outdoor living rooms (i.e. a look-out point, timber decking and boulder seats) among lush greenery. These improvement works will benefit both the residents and retailers.

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Hainanese Village : A Tropical Island

The contextual design approach provided by SQFT Architects coheres to the theme of Enriched Identity, which is central to HDB’s Remaking Our Heartland programme. Within a given site, we searched the most prominent landmark, where civic life concentrates, and then, derived familiar elements from it to inform our design vocabulary. In this manner, our addition to the site will not be outlandish and jives with public consciousness of place.

 

In the case of N1, the Hainanese Village Centre (HVC) stands out in the site, where its picturesque row of palm trees has become familiar and identifiable with the local residents. We want to utilize the instantly recognizable palm tree foliage and the elegantly curvy trunk of the plant as the formal design language. Also, the HVC boasts an iconic timber-louvre screen on its front façade that, together with the presence of elevational voids, exudes a sense of permeable tropical architecture. We also aim to incorporate this sense of tropicality into new public spaces by the blend of timbre, stone and greenery, fluidity and seamlessness in our spatial planning. All in all, the site will be transformed into a Hainanese Tropical Island.

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