Weaving Social Tapestries
BY Jonathan Chua Wei Shen
SUPERVISED BY Assoc. Prof. Cheah Kok Ming
STUDIO THEME ANTIFRAGILE FRAMING
Abstract
Social practices in Singapore have been highly reliant on state functions to develop, many orchestrated by national agencies through various social institutions. Covid-19 and evolving societal needs have revealed gaps in sustaining communities using institutional means, leading to fragile social bonds that fragment when unsupported. This thesis thus examines how we can sow new anti-fragile communities that are supported by heterogenous social infrastructure models. Through various modes of sharing and collaborative practices, community is envisioned as a living ecology, with social infrastructure as the thread to tie old and new communal bonds. Choa Chu Kang is selected as a test bed, for it is a place with established groups, yet presenting opportunities to sow new ones. Interventions to the HDB block and local site are inserted over the next 25 years, with the purpose that they may grow with the community, its social practices strengthened by architectural structures, and architectural structures reflecting the community.
Supervisor Comments
The thesis imagines the constituents of a social infrastructure in the context of a HDB neighbourhood. It reveals that while there are some programmatic and architectural interventions that can be redeployed, there is still no one size fits all solution. The specificities of the context as well as the responses to the passage of time further define its bespoke qualities and its meaningfulness. This thesis is sensitive at interpreting the nuances and aspirations of the ground for creating bold and vibrant community spaces. It seeks to anchor architecture in place-making and community bonding.
- Assoc. Prof. Cheah Kok Ming