The ubiquitous shophouse is an architectural type deeply rooted in the Singaporean context, but has lost its relevance and specificity due to its generic quality. As such, the shophouse of today has been constantly adapted to allow for an extensive range of uses and programmes to inhabit, far beyond what it was originally intended for. Yet, the organisational make-up of the shophouse - defined largely by the arrangement of its core elements of the five-foot-way/ staicase, airwell/ service block and party wall - has not changed in years. It has been proven to be resilient; its generic architectural qualities highly effective in making it the typological ‘stockpile’ for large areas of the city, resulting in the low-rise, tightly-knit urban fabric we are so familiar with. Can this typological imprint of the shophouse be reimagined to offer new forms of programmatic organisation and occupation?

 

This project thus positions its thinking of programme as a set of programmatic qualities, instead of the typical usage and convention that drives the production of a spatial outcome. By investigating a set of binary programmatic qualities - open/ closed and public/ private - and its interactions with the five-foot-way/ staircase and airwell/ service block as its core elements, the project posits new possibilities for the shophouse type and deliberates on its impact on the city. The site, measuring 20m by 20m (approximately 4 shophouse lots), is located in Little India, adjacent to Lembu Road open space. The surrounding physical fabric comprises mostly 2-3 storey shophouses, but the larger spread of the district contains exceptions to the urban grain, from multistorey Mustafa Centre to the high-rise HDB flats of Veerasamy estate.

 

The programmatic content is largely defined by the evaluation of the potentials for programmatic occupation offered by the project’s emergent organisational ideas. The programme takes reference from the programmatic origins of the shophouse’s ‘shop’ and ‘house’ and seeks to uncover new relationships between them and the site. It consists of dwelling spaces for craft artisans (house) and spaces for social exchange, retail and transaction (shop). By engaging with the site, the programme of cardboard collection and upcycling has been redefined to bring on new experiences.