Design Team
Chung
Meng Ker
Tay Kheng Soon
Thomas Kong
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: 20,400.00 sq m
Site Coverage: 28.17 %
Plot Ratio: 1 : 0.408
Gross Floor Area: 8,319.92 sq m
The creation of an environment for nurturing children's inherent creative energy has always posed a demanding design problem. Schools are a child's first experience of society and, as such, they have to be friendly and reassuring and simultaneously, they must have discipline and a sense of order.
Akitek Tenggara has taken as the generating idea for the Elias Park Primary
School the notion of a school as 'A Small Village'; a microcosm of the
larger community. The intention of the architect has therefore been to
diminish the scale of the building so that it is perceived as a place
for children. This is not an entirely new idea; in the European context
in the 1980's, Dutch architect Herman Hertzberger used the idea of streets
and courts in the design of the Montessori School at Amsterdam. Also,
Hans Sharoun's unbuilt but seminal design for a primary school at Darmstadt
has a village-like configuration that stresses the engagement of the interior
with the exterior. Much of their thinking, and perhaps Akitek Tenggara's,
was influenced by the writing of Jean Piaget in Dreams and Imitation in
Childhood (1962) and Maria Montessori in The Absorbent Mind (1967).
Montessori notes that the environment we create for children can play
an important part in their physical and intellectual development.
The plan of the Elias Park Primary School is internalised to give a protected
world, one that is in dynamic contrast to and yet obviously part of the
context of mass housing in which it is located. The teaching blocks and
the ancillary facilities are expressed as a series of pavilions. The village
scale is thus emphasised against the backcloth of the high-rise HDB (Housing
And Development Board) slab-blocks. The school is fronted by the playing
field while the assembly hall and canteen block, i.e. the large volume
spaces, are deliberately placed at the 'rear' in close proximity to the
multi-storey housing.
This challenges the notion that a school ought to have an imposing or
even monu-mental entrance. The contrary logic is to reduce the impact
of the hall and to emphasise horizontality. In theory, this gives a more
friendly and welcoming building. It works, but perhaps too emphatically
for the administrative block is downplayed in its external arti-culation
and it is not immediately apparent to the a visitor arriving on foot.
Perhaps this is not a problem for those who use the school on a daily
basis and certainly once 'inside' the school there is no difficulty in
orientating oneself. Indeed, the spatial hierarchy informs one clearly
about the various functions and the internal circulation pattern is at
once obvious.
The idea of a small village is expressed most convincingly in the plan
arrangement. Upon entering the administration block, one encounters a
modest 'galleria'. Its delightful spatial quality comes as a surprise
for it is not over-emphasised in the external form. It is a civic space
and from here, one progresses via a two-level, sheltered, corridor or
"street" through a series of open-to-sky courts of various configurations.
One takes the form of a forum with a raised platform from which the Principal
might address a group of children, or a small outdoor performance might
be performed here. Another 'village square' is punctuated by a 'tower'.
Along the street, several alcoves, almost like small shop spaces invite
the imagination of the schoolchildren. They were conceived as 'Wendy Houses',
a feature which has proved successful in other progressive educational
environments such as the Maris Stella Kindergarten in Singapore.
"You will notice that this school looks so much smaller than equivalent
schools, but this is not because we are providing less floor area"
(Tay 1996). There is a conscious effort to build a 'place' for children.
For example, the cill heights throughout are kept low and the concrete
wall alongside the canteen, which is tall and potentially overpowering,
is 'stepped' and it is finished in a horizontal ribbed pattern. The architectural
language could be termed 'Tropical Modernism'. "If anything has subconsciously
influenced us, it might be the simple, no-nonsense architecture of the
original Kandang Kerbau Hospital," (Akitek Tenggara's offices formerly
occupied one block of the original hospital building). The details and
the section of the school place the building firmly in the tropics.
There are wide concrete sun-shading devices, deep overhangs and in-between
spaces which are the stuff of tropical architecture. The classrooms are
one-room deep to encourage natural ventilation, soft landscaping is introduced
to reduce insolation, and the roof design of the assembly hall permits
only diffused daylight to enter. It is a successful fusion of Modernism
with the traditional vernacular responses to climate.
