This project aims to cultivate skills on how we can craft spaces, through the manipulation of form, scale and the controlled illumination of the space within from natural light outside. How are we able to conceive meaningful spaces and explore on how Architecture can be used as a platform to tell a "story".

 

This primer aims to create a place of remembrance outside of Changi Chapel Museum to honour the spirit and commitment of those who rose from the depths of adversity during World War II. By creating a journey within the structure, it hopes to evoke 3 emotions within the users.

 

Reminiscence

As you exit from the chapel museum, you will notice an entrance that leads into the gallery. Intrigued, you approach it. As you go through this entrance, you start to realise the ceiling of the entrance tapering down. You emerge out of the entrance, and you are greeted by the openness of the courtyard. Here, it feels safe and secure as you are enclosed. You also notice the reflective pool in the middle emanating gentle wave sounds that enhances the serenity of the atmosphere. Almost unwillingly, the slanted walls of the gallery guide your sights and your head tilts towards the sky. You then realise how the structure frames and reaches out for the open sky and mutes out surrounding noises, further enhancing the feeling of peace.

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Lamentation

You venture down into the basement and you notice the images on the wall depicting the war. The images get increasingly intense as you descend. Before you realise it, you are at the bottom of the basement. Looking up, you realise that you are right below the reflective pool in the courtyard. You look around the room and you find that the water in the reflective pool is casting oscillating shadows on the ground that mimic the chaotic state of the war. Despite seeing all these movements, you feel the absence of something. That is when you will realise that the war has taken away the liveliness that you once had in the courtyard. The colours of the sky, grass and water, the sounds of nature and the pool and the daylight. The emotion of lamentation settles in...

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Nostalgia

You continue moving and you start ascending. Upon reaching the first floor, you find yourself at the bottom of a stairs that leads to the 2nd floor. You look up and see the light at the end of the tunnel – war is over.

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You climb up the stairs and you enter the 3rd space Nostalgia. After coming up from the basement, you continue moving forward and you see images of the aftermath of the war on the walls. You harbour a sense of pain as you observe the damage the war has inflicted on Singapore. Turning your head. you observe how the peaceful courtyard you were once in is in plain view. You then wish you could go back to this state of time when everything was peaceful. However, you are unable to and can only continue forward. At the end, you are relieved of all the tension from the war and nostalgia now comes in the form of acceptance. Here you put the past behind you and you are revealed to the view of the carpark and the road, which signifies how far Singapore has come since the war. You take a final glance at the courtyard and leave the gallery.