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Part 1 Project 2001
Torrance Goh
National University of Singapore | Singapore
browse
>grab something light. book and beverage.
>glance through news on the move.
>see hear openair performances.

en route//an experience.public.in transit

defines the character of the site//an ageing suburb town centre entrance interconnecting major transportation points. with the presence of numerous schools and a university, the act of transfer becomes a common experience for many who enter the site just to leave it at the very next moment.

in comes browse, a proposed alternative lifestyle library. its presence poses 2 challenges//the intermediation of two opposing public spaces [the library+the square] and the reinvention of the library with new social conditions. with these considerations in mind, en route not only serves as a conceptual basis that interplays the experiences of the two opposing public spaces, but also reconfigures the library by negotiating with its peripherals [emediacentre+cafe+programme]

maintaining the site's funneling axis, a glass block containing stacked corridors is anchored with the emediacentre which forms a street. observing that how much one en routes is based largely on amount of available time one has, a major thoroughfare is interweaved within intersecting fragments of the library yet remaining whole physically through form simplicity. floating and overshadowing the square, the block equates the public status of the square and the elevated library through spatial transparency, resulting in visual and social interaction of the observers and those being observed, yet separating their conditions. experimenting with the interaction between present light conditions, a shadowscape forms a virtual enclosure that interacts with the square, subtly ever-changing the spatial experience within. clad in sandblasted glass, the emediacentre casts its inhabitants shadows onto its surface, in contrast with the transparent block. where the centre intersects with the glass block, the library fuses together as floorplates become translucent through materials of wiremesh and glass. this intensifies onto the square as architecture, program, site and the users become one as they merge into shadows.

Torrance Goh


"BROWSE"

"Browse" is a highly enigmatic and seamless amalgam of movement and pauses, lines and edges, shadows and light, content and reflection. Taking the cue from the disorganised and frenetic nature of the site - a transportation node and neighbourhood centre sharing an indistinct boundary with a park/plaza - the projects seeks to extend, clarify, reinforce, and re-shape programme and site, activity and place.

Through the act of browsing, from within (the 'library') and without (at the 'library'), the otherwise irreconcilable state of the static (the park/plaza) and the dynamic (the corridors of movement over the park) dissolves. This act is enhanced by the constant shifting of light reflected, refracted and modulated, in concert with the condition of day and the level of activity at the centre.

The formal disposition of the building is deceptively simple, a translucent diagonal swathe across the site directing the upper layer of commuter movement, and a truncated solid on ground layer engaging the reposeful. In a single stroke of intervention, the existing enclave shifts from the undefined to the articulated.

2001
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