The Stephen Riady Centre is the penultimate parcel to be completed in NUS’ landmark University Town project. Occupying the former Warren golf club, fronted by Clementi Road and Dover Road, University Town is intended to be the next generation of tertiary education in Singapore, taking reference from the residential colleges of the US and the UK. The Stephen Riady Centre is located on an angled site on the south west corner of the campus and with frontages along the internal vehicular ring road and the central pedestrianized turfed area – the town green – the parcel presented an exciting challenge to the designers. The brief presented by the client called for a landmark building which would house the most diverse group of users on the campus, with sports, education, dance and administration departments being housed together. The building also had to be tied into the extensive site-wide pedestrian circulation system with a centralised covered ‘forum’ space in the middle of the site.
DESIGN PROCESS
The architectural team started with the notion of ‘Pedagogy’ or the art and science of teaching and education. Learning no longer needs to be confined to classrooms and may even occur in open, incidental spaces. With this idea of spontaneity in mind, the design process began with the circulation route, which was ready to be connected at both the northern and southern ends of the site. Owing to the gentle upward slope of the site from a low southern side, it became apparent that there would need to be a dual system of stacked pedestrian walkways. This stacked pedestrian expressway became the spine from which the various functional elements of the building were plugged into, along with a multitude of breakout spaces. Another dimension was added with the inclusion of generous visual linkages between both of these levels.
THE INTERNAL SPINE
Aside from the pedestrian spine, there was a perpendicular pedestrian route from the vehicular ring road to the town green, which the designers combined together with the forum. The forum therefore became the centralised pivot point of the building with four major convergences of paths. The forum and the vehicular drop off were designed with the latter in mind – it had to be an iconic structure and a landmark for University Town. The form chosen – an evocative streamlined metallic disc was designed to be this icon. Mounted at high level and with transparency, the space below is pleasant, bright and airy. The result of the ‘plugged in’ functions was a building form which was both inward looking in terms of access and outwardly flamboyant to the town green– activities within the building were fully visible and showcase the diversity of NUS.
