Design Team
Tay
Kheng Soon
Patrick Chia
Henk Hermans
Design Data
Client:
Institute of Technical Education
Main Contractor: Kimly Construction
Structural Engineer: Ove Arup & Partners
M & E Engineer: Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner (SE Asia) Pte Ltd
Quantity Surveyor: Davis Langdon & Seah
Site
Area: 46,037.2 sq m
SiteCoverage: 15.03 %
Plot Ratio: 1 : 0.44
Gross Floor Area: 20,300 sq m
The Institute of Technical Education (ITE) continues the development of Akitek Tenggara's exploration of a modern architectural language for the tropics.
Two 250-metre-long parallel blocks of accommodation are separated by an
18-metre wide strip of landscape. They are gently bent to a curve with
an inside radius of 170 metres. The four-storey-high blocks are punctured
at intervals along the façade to permit the prevailing breezes
to pass through the structure.
The curved roof has a wide overhang which gives protection from the rain
and sun. The overhang is supported on a secondary steel frame which also
carries aerolon-type louvres that shield the external walls. The building
has a striking image of raw technology with steel bridges across the gap
between the two linear blocks. The building is stripped to the essentials.
Decoration is superfluous; every component either has a structural reason
or is an essential climatic-controlling device.
The building is entered on the west side, into a soaring naturally-ventilated
atrium and open-to-sky auditorium. The roof is a high curved steel frame
with open sides, not entirely suitable for its users in a tropical thunderstorm
but at other times it is the hub of the complex. An industrial-finished
glass lift ascends within this atrium space, connected by flying bridges
to the intermediate floors of the teaching blocks. The multi-purpose hall
is at the south end of the block with exhaust ducting from the
kitchen beneath elegantly deployed.
Throughout, there is consistent architectural language. The building celebrates
tech-nology in a poetic manner. The central "street" is reminiscent
of Tay Kheng Soon's ideas for Kampong Bugis DGP; it is high and narrow
with overhanging roofs which effectively give shade throughout the day.
Non-reflective landscape helps to cool the building. One of the principal
issues of designing in the tropics is the discovery of a design language
of line, edge, mesh and shade rather than an architecture of plane, volume,
solid and void.
Architecturally, the design emphasises changeability in the usage and adaptability in the fabric of the building. The design strategy is therefore to be able to accommodate modifications in an aggregative manner rather than adopt a finite design composition which resists any addition or alteration.
Climatically, the design emphasizes transparency and permeability in the
spatial structure. The sheltering effect of the overhangs over the passageways
creates an architecture of shade rather than an architecture of mass.
