Building utopia - James Stirling, Michael Wilford and Associates' design of the Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore

Architectural Review, The, June, 1996 by Peter Davey

1 Including the UK, an astonishing achievement for a city founded on a swamp by Sir Stamford Raffles in 1819. The calculation of income does not take into account the large numbers of migrant, non-citizen workers in Singapore.

2 Not actually a town, for apart from a small amount of staff housing, there is no living accommodation on the site. Students come from all over the island by efficient and cheap public transport.

3 In contrast to European developments of the same kind and period, the New Town seems to work reasonably well, with no obvious vandalism or decay.

4 Traditional Chinese shop houses in south-east Asia have the shop on the ground floor with living accommodation above. The shop front is drawn back from the front of the building by about a couple of metres, providing an arcaded continuous sheltered pavement, privately owned but a public amenity. Ownership at Temasek is clearly public, but cultural echoes and habits resonate.

5 Initially, the architects had hoped to have very little air conditioning: hence the thin plans. But the clients decided to incorporate more and more mechanical ventilation and cooling, so all the teaching spaces are now air conditioned, but the concourses and other pedestrian links are naturally cooled.