Design Team
Patrick
Chia
Henk Hermans
Design Data
Client:
Ministry of Education
Main Contractor: San Ho Huat Construction Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners
M & E Engineer: Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner (SEA) Pte Ltd
Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon & Seah
Site
Area: 32,365 sq m
Site Coverage: 13.466 %
Plot Ratio: 1: 0.398
Gross Floor Area: 12,889.50sq M
Clementi Town Secondary School is an additions and alterations (A+A) project. New accommodation has been added to the existing school. This extension which provides additional classrooms and offices is also used, by the architects, to create a memorable entrance to the school. The original school building were organised in a 'U' formation with the open end facing the entrance driveway. The new extension closes this open end and students now enter through a central gateway into a large 'quadrangle'.
There is a sense of arrival into an academic environment, a sense that
is enhanced by various visual cues within the entrance portico including
the school's 'Mission' pro-minently displayed. Even without such obvious
visual devices, the form of the extension conveys a distinct hierarchy.
There is a feeling of the world 'outside' and the scholastic world 'within',
or to use the terminology of Gordon Cullen (Cullen 1961) of 'hereness'
and 'thereness'.
The architectural
language of the new extension has an affinity with the language of the
old Kandang Kerbau Hospital buildings where Akitek Tenggara's office was
formally located. The extended lintols above each door and window opening
which act as sun-shading devices also provide a controlled vertical and
horizontal rhythm. They are an indication of the infinite variations within
the language of line, edge, mesh and shade.
