D A N C E O F T H E C I T Y
People balance the tension and relaxation of their muscles and control to initiate movement everyday. When ordering these natural, physical, human responses, or using them for expression and communication, this is essentially a dance.
In fact, people always show their most natural dance performance in the city as the modern man nowadays live in a world that values productivity, work, global connections, growth, and expansion that make them always move. Too often, people get sucked into this active frame of mind and they lose sight of the other side of life that helps keeps them mentally and physically in balance, that being the qualities of rest, relaxation, solitude and meditation. However, this is, in fact, similar to dance, controlling the movements through a balance of tension used such as heavy and light, sharp and smooth are crucial in dance. Hence, it led to the exploration of tension in the movements of the CBD areas in Singapore, where the city that is often dancing as the never-ending flow of movements and vibrant with activities.
Inspired by dance, creating “slow” to against the fast and give the modern man relief from the urban rush, creates a balanced composition of the movements in the city. Thus, the project seeks to promote Duxton Plain Park as a 21st-century refuge of the CBD areas in Singapore and intended to amplify the phenomenon of the park. By designing a pause space in order to add a layer of richness and serendipity to the city as A CELEBRATION OF THE DANCE OF THE CITY.
THE OVERALL VIEW
The overall design is designed as an interlude of the park which promotes and encourage visitors to have a temporary pause movement and be willing to explore and experience the park. Also, the design aimed to become a landmark area for people, a lively space for social gatherings, a connector between shophouses and the park, and a model of the slow movement of the urban city.
CONTEMPLATION AREA
This is an area where people can have a contemplation moment over this area where the proposed waterfall feature produces white noise that drowns out the sounds of surroundings and creates a sense of privacy in the space.
DINING & RESTING AREA
This space is designed to serve as a resting point for the workers of the shophouses where they can take a nap or have a quick lunch meal. It is inspired by the pause phenomenon which can be found out at the shophouses’ back alley where a lot of workers occupied the back alley as a breakout space. The experience of the user is enriched through the creation of a platform extending from the edge of the back alley over the cliff looking to give the visitor the opportunity to 'fly' over the landscape.
DINING AREA
By seeing the vacant plot that on top of the shophouses as an opportunity to design. The space is designed as a dining area which provides users a rare opportunity to escape to an afternoon lunch in the sun or an evening dinner under the stars and also indirectly create a dialogue between the shophouses.
VIEWING PLATFORM
Due to people always treat this space as a transitioning space, the area has been designed to offer spectacular 360-degree views of the park. Hence, people can appreciate the natural environment and have a dialogue between nature as well. The result is an open-air zone in the park that captures people’s pause movements and happenings flowing out onto the parkway, generating a renewed slowness to the space.
VIEWING DECK
This area provides the opportunity for visitors to capture the sunset moment.
Z E N B Y D A Y , G R O O V Y B Y N I G H T
STAGE AREA
During the night, this area will turn into a performance stage where people can enjoy a different kind of leisure activities over here.
BAR & DATING AREA
At night, the dining area will turn into a bar area where people can bring their drinks or come out from the bar of the shophouses to enjoy the performance from the far view. Besides that, this area can be used as a dating area for the couple in order to capture the romanticism, different kind of pause movements.
SECTION ELEVATION
