'filter city' proposes hybrid urban prototype for a pandemic future in singapore

‘filter city’ is an investigation into a pandemic future in the peri-urban context of woodlands north in singapore, where the high-speed rail will receive 2000 commuters a day from malaysia. because screening is a norm, the containment of at-risk commuters proposes hybrid transport terminal and quarantine-hotel facilities, and this starts a chain reaction of rethinking ‘stay-home notices’, ‘work-from-home’, and lockdowns.one of the four key strategies emphasized here is rewilding. existing parks, waterbodies, and hillocks have been preserved along with the expansion of secondary forest areas around the settlement

all images courtesy of sherry goh

‘filter city’ masterplan features the combined efforts of five architecture thesis —by azriel yeo, bernie ang, justin sim, max lee, sherry goh— from the national university of singapore. each student also dived deeper into respective topics on housing, workplace, food production, retail and manufacturing, medical and quarantine. as such, the project highlights a combination of robust and detailed individual endeavors.three other objectives – self-sufficiency, good ventilation, decentralization and localization, are enabled by the totem form. the key concept of granulation can be seen in this sectional drawing

furthermore, a new neighborhood is conceived to enable life, creative production, and recreation without the claustrophobic impositions of incumbent forms of dwellings, quarantines, and workplaces. investigations into how small a self-reliant neighborhood can subsist without disruption to energy, water, and food supply and recover-in-place resulted in novel hybrid urban prototypes planned for containment and recovery.
food production: intensified growth areas, harvesting, distribution facilities, water reticulation & waste management systems integrated with celebratory atriums spaces as an architectural experience

covid-19 has raised concerns about the continued reliance on global networks for sustaining local economies, particularly its future resiliency. key-response is to develop economic activities, producing high-value goods and services for exports as well as meeting domestic demand. this raises the following questions: what is the scale on which such production forms can exist effectively to fuel self-reliant economies? what is physical planning required for the urban environment to accommodate such production forms?
food production: visualization of celebratory public atriums integrated with intensified growth areas, harvesting, processing and distribution facilities

the future city plan is unlikely to take current forms in view of high density/high occupancy vulnerability. the pandemic safety restrictions have resulted in adaptations to new modes of schooling, collaboration, production, transaction, and recreation. boundaries of home, workplace, school, and recreation will change and affect the granularity of a city masterplan. of concern is the impact on social interaction when the scale of recreational spaces diminishes with reduced occupancy. of importance are new urban spaces that operate in dispersed occupancies without diminishing vibrancy and connectivity.
retail and manufacturing: redefining large-scale retail and manufacturing spaces in more granulated entities by integrating micro-factories and retail streets in a closed resource loop

vibrant, self-sufficient, and safe retail and manufacturing landscape: it enables collaboration between manufacturers and the community to innovate and learn, grooming talents locally
workplace: instead of thinking of ‘finished architecture’, office buildings are distilled to its basic components that make it functional in the first place.

workplace: urban space is too valuable to be static, designed as a flexible system with the appropriate technology, space can be reconfigured and transformed in an effortless way

housing: redefining the living environment by rethinking the components of a post-pandemic dwelling and the dwelling also becomes an instrument for micro home-businesses and refuge

housing: the park-house concept features a series of gardens and recreation spaces which are interconnected in both horizontal and vertical axes, while allowing the residents to move about freely

medical and quarantine: the obliviating of transportation and escort teams saves cost and time, whilst using dedicated transportation capsules to ferry infected from homes to modularised capsule wards

medical and quarantine: specialized quarantine accommodation with private gardens are allotted in every unit. CFD simulations validated airflow, preventing re-entrant air from spreading across units

project info:

name: filter city: woodlands regional center masterplan
architects: azriel yeo, bernie ang, justin sim, max lee, sherry goh — university of singapore

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina petridou | designboom