A Proposal for a Multi-Ethnic Quarter: Mediating Divergent Social Groups in the Farrer Park Area

Abstract

The area around the Farrer Park Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) station is a bustling multi-ethnic neighbourhood in the greater Rochor area (Rochor+). It harbours vital street life and is made up of a mix of historic shophouses and contemporary high rises. Various ethnic communities have been using many of the vacant sites in the area informally as festival or meeting spaces. Most notable of these are the weekly influx of ‘foreign workers’ 1 on Sundays, their large numbers creating a semi-permanent ethnic hub in the area. At the same time, developers are building large-scale investment projects on some of the open sites, targeting a wealthier clientele in the centrally located neighbourhood. The opening of the Connexion, an integrated hospital-hotel complex for medical tourism, for example, is catalysing the growing number of new, short-term rental types, called suites, which accommodate transnational consumers from the surrounding region. The ensuing process of gentrification2 threatens the cultural diversity. The following design project sees the socially divergent yet physically intersecting populations as a potential for future urban strategies. It deploys a public space system to accommodate the informal activities of existing migrant groups. It also, importantly, introduces a high-density, mid-rise ‘new shophouse’ type for the neighbourhood. Through a combination of densification, upgrades and strategic addition of social amenities, the proposal puts forth the coexistence of divergent user groups