Marine Parade Community Building () is located at 278

Marine Parade Marine Parade is a planning area and residential estate located in the Central Region of Singapore. Straddling the tip of the southeastern coast of Pulau Ujong, Marine Parade serves as a buffer between the Central and East regions of the ci ...

Road, Singapore. Opened on 6 March 2000, it houses the formerly separate Marine Parade

Community Centre Community centres, community centers, or community halls are public locations where members of a community tend to gather for group activities, social support, public information, and other purposes. They may sometimes be open for the whole co ...

and Marine Parade Public Library, as well as a performing arts group,

The Necessary Stage The Necessary Stage (previously known as M1 Theatre Connect and M1 Youth Connection) is a Singaporean non-profit theatre company with charity status. Formed in 1987 by Alvin Tan, The Necessary Stage was established with its own mission to creat ...

. Designed by William Lim Associates, one of the distinguishing features of the

postmodern Postmodernism is an intellectual stance or mode of discourseNuyen, A.T., 1992. The Role of Rhetorical Devices in Postmodernist Discourse. Philosophy & Rhetoric, pp.183–194. characterized by skepticism toward the " grand narratives" of modern ...

building is the

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

cladding Cladding is an outer layer of material covering another. It may refer to the following: * Cladding (boiler), the layer of insulation and outer wrapping around a boiler shell *Cladding (construction), materials applied to the exterior of buildings ...

called the "Texturefulness of Life", the largest piece of

installation art Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often calle ...

in Singapore.

History

The current building sits on reclaimed land first occupied by the Marine Parade Community Centre, which was built in the early 1980s and later renamed to Marine Parade Community Club."Learning Journey: Marine Parade Community Club]" (doc), Ministry of Education (Singapore), Ministry of Education. Retrieved 26 September 2007. In March 1995, the

People's Association The People's Association (PA) is a statutory board under the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) of the Government of Singapore that oversees neighbourhood grassroots communities and social organisations. Established in 1960, it ...

(PA) announced plans to spend S$9.56 million to upgrade 54 community centres and clubs that were over ten years old, adding facilities such as lifts, dance studios, karaoke rooms and multi-purpose air-conditioned activities rooms, to make community centres more user-friendly, with open concept offices and reception areas.Stephanie Yeo, "PA plans to upgrade 54 CCs that are more than 10 years old", ''

The Straits Times ''The Straits Times'' is an English-language daily broadsheet newspaper based in Singapore and currently owned by SPH Media Trust (previously Singapore Press Holdings). ''The Sunday Times'' is its Sunday edition. The newspaper was establish ...

'', 11 March 1995. In June 1995, then-Prime Minister

Goh Chok Tong Goh Chok Tong (; born 20 May 1941) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Prime Minister of Singapore between 1990 and 2004, and Secretary-General of the People's Action Party between 1992 and 2004. He was the Member of Parliament (MP ...

asked PA to study the idea of having community centres share their premises with other civil users such as libraries, government offices and commercial developments. Goh, who is also a

Member of Parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with Bicameralism, bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house ...

for

Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency The Marine Parade Group Representation Constituency is a five-member Group Representation Constituency (GRC) located in the central, eastern and north-eastern areas of Singapore. The constituency consists of a section of Bedok, Chai Chee, G ...

, suggested combining the Marine Parade Community Club, which was slated for upgrading, with the

National Library A national library is a library established by a government as a country's preeminent repository of information. Unlike public libraries, these rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuable, or significant w ...

branch in Marine Parade, in a six-storey building with three floors for the community club and three for the library."Use CCs for other purposes too: PM", ''

'', 26 June 1995."This CC is a community complex", ''

'', 22 February 2000.Suzanne Sng, "A three-in-one community hub", ''

'', 27 May 2000. In June 1996,

Wong Kan Seng Wong Kan Seng ( zh, s=黄根成, j=Wong4 Gan1 Sing4, poj=N̂g Kun-sêng, p=Huáng Gēnchéng; born 8 September 1946) is a Singaporean former politician who served as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore between 2005 and 2011. He has been serving ...

, PA's deputy chairman, announced that due to the scarcity of land in Singapore, eight of the redeveloped community centres, including Marine Parade Community Club, would be located with other civil users."The eight centres", ''

'', 28 June 1996. As 30% of the upgrading cost had to be paid by the community club, several fundraising activities were carried out for the redevelopment. These activities, which included music concerts, golf tournaments and cyclethons, raised a total of S$6 million. The old club building was demolished in 1997 and construction of the Marine Parade Community Building began the same year. SAL Construction was the project's main contractor. Built at a cost of S$30 million, the new building was completed in January 2000, and was open to the public on 6 March that year. It was officially opened by Goh Chok Tong on 28 May that year."Thumbs up for new-concept CC", ''

'', 7 March 2000Joshua Lye, It's not cricket when corruption strikes, ''

'', 27 May 2000.Parvathi Nayar, "Home sweet home", '' The Business Times'', 27 May 2000.

Facilities

The Marine Parade Community Building currently houses the Marine Parade Community Club, the Marine Parade Community Library and a professional theatre company,

. It also originally had an

al fresco Alfresco may refer to: * ''Al fresco'', or fresco, a technique of mural painting * Al fresco dining * Alfresco Software Alfresco Software is a collection of information management software products for Microsoft Windows and Unix-like operatin ...

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 ...

café on the ground floor.

Marine Parade Community Club

Opened on 6 March 2000, the Marine Parade Community Club is equipped with a glass-walled gymnasium overlooking part of the

East Coast Parkway The East Coast Parkway ( Abbreviation: ECP) is an expressway that runs along the southeastern coast of Singapore. The expressway is approximately in length, and connects Singapore Changi Airport in the east to the Benjamin Sheares Bridge, in ...

, a covered basketball court on the rooftop and an air-conditioned sports hall. There are also a 263-seat theatrette, a roof terrace for gatherings, and music, study and activity rooms.

Marine Parade Public Library

Opened on 10 November 1978, the Marine Parade Community Library was originally located at the town centre of Marine Parade Housing Estate before it shifted to its new premises at the community building. The library is Singapore's second-oldest public library and the only one built on

reclaimed land Land reclamation, usually known as reclamation, and also known as land fill (not to be confused with a waste landfill), is the process of creating new land from oceans, seas, riverbeds or lake beds. The land reclaimed is known as reclamati ...

. It started moving in stages to the community building in April 2000, and was officially opened by Goh Chok Tong on 28 May that year. The Marine Parade Community Library is the first public library in Singapore to be housed together with a community club and an arts group. The library's old premises was renovated for an

NTUC FairPrice NTUC FairPrice is the largest supermarket chain in Singapore. The company is a co-operative of the National Trades Union Congress (NTUC). The group has 100 supermarkets across the island, with over 160 outlets of Cheers convenience stores isl ...

supermarket.Heng Wong and Naidu Ratnala Thulaja,
Marine Parade Community Library
", Singapore Infopedia,

National Library Board The National Library Board (NLB) is a statutory board under the purview of the Ministry of Communications and Information of the government of Singapore. The board manages the public libraries throughout the country. The national librarie ...

, 1999. Retrieved 26 September 2007. The library is spread over four floors of the Marine Parade Community Building, with a floor area of 3,500 square metres (37,675 square feet). As one of the first neighbourhood libraries, the library's entire second floor is its children's book section, featuring

s, trivia and multimedia tools. The library has more than 150,000 books and 2,500 videos available for loan. There is a café on the ground floor, and the library is fitted with numerous couches and benches for the public's use. Other facilities include multimedia stations, do-it-yourself service stations, and music posts equipped with headphones.

The Necessary Stage

The Necessary Stage was the first arts group to be housed in a community building with a community club by Singapore's National Arts Council (NAC). The move was part of the NAC's Arts Housing Scheme that offered alternative locations to arts groups besides old vacant buildings, in line with PA's plan to repackage its community clubs as fashionable multi-purpose spaces. The Necessary Stage's 672-square metre (7,467 square feet) premises at the basement of the community building was about three times the size of its old premises at Cairnhill Arts Centre, which did not have a proper theatre space for productions. The arts group's facility at the community building features a "Black Box", a stage-less theatre with flexible seating. The NAC spent S$2.1 million on construction costs for the unit at Marine Parade, which includes a

foyer A lobby is a room in a building used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer, reception area or an entrance hall, it is often a large room or complex of rooms (in a theatre, opera house, concert hall, showroom, cinema, etc ...

and the 120-seat Black Box.

Architecture

Overall, the architectural form of the Marine Parade Community Building has been described as a " dragon", with the roof as a crest and the artwork as the eye of the dragon. The horizontal

louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

s on the library block was seen as the tail fins of the dragon, an auspicious beast in

Chinese culture Chinese culture () is one of the world's oldest cultures, originating thousands of years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia and is extremely diverse and varying, with customs and traditions varying grea ...

Design concept

Sited adjacent to

Housing and Development Board The Housing & Development Board (HDB) (; ms, Lembaga Perumahan dan Pembangunan; ta, வீடமைப்பு வளர்ச்சிக் கழகம்) or often referred to as the Housing Board, is a statutory board under the M ...

apartment blocks of the Marine Parade Housing Estate, the Marine Parade Community Building could be seen as an attempt to engage the wider community. The activities of the community building were planned to overlap and to coalesce, as a one-stop destination for the entire family. The rich congruence of the multiple programmes for the building is expressed architecturally as a collage of diverse elements. The building was designed by a local architectural firm, William Lim Associates, which adopted a

pluralist approach, expressed through a multiplicity of materials and forms.Tan Shzr Ee, "Happy Birthday With No Limits", ''

'', 15 July 2002

Wall mural

The community building is clad in a huge wall mural, a commissioned work of art by Thai architect Surachai Yeamsiri. The mural is Singapore's largest piece of

, measuring 63 metres by 12 metres (207 feet by 39 feet), and covers the curved north- and east-facing façade of the community building."Marine Parade's going big on art", ''

'', 8 November 1998. Called the "Texturefulness of Life", the artwork made use of a variety of materials such as glass and wood. The artwork's centrepiece resembles a huge human eye plastered on a wall, made up of tiny

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

tiles arranged by computer-aided design. Surachai's

abstract Abstract may refer to: * ''Abstract'' (album), 1962 album by Joe Harriott * Abstract of title a summary of the documents affecting title to parcel of land * Abstract (law), a summary of a legal document * Abstract (summary), in academic publishi ...

piece was the winner in the "Art on Wall" design competition, organised by the Marine Parade Community Club Management Committee in 1998. A panel of international judges picked the winning design from a total of 66 entries submitted by artists, architects and designers from all over Southeast Asia, including 40 entries from Singapore. Led by local art historian T. K. Sabapathy, the panel felt that the winning entry best reflected the contest's themes of dynamism, interaction, fusion and harmony. The mural was installed on the curved facade of the community building at a cost of S$50,000.

Other features

The library block is predominantly clad in glass, fitted with horizontal fins, on its frontage with the main road. The alfresco café had a street frontage and was spread into the shared forecourt. The roof of the community building resembles the leaves of a

palm tree The Arecaceae is a family of perennial flowering plants in the monocot order Arecales. Their growth form can be climbers, shrubs, tree-like and stemless plants, all commonly known as palms. Those having a tree-like form are called palm tre ...

, and covers the community club's rooftop basketball court. The court's location on the roof level was a departure from the norm, as in other community centres then, the basketball court occupies space on the ground floor.

Notes and references

External links

Library Board: Marine Parade Community LibraryThe Necessary StageHybrid Design Culture of Contemporary Singapore: Marine Parade Community Centre
{{Good article Community buildings in Singapore Libraries in Singapore Landmarks in Singapore Government buildings completed in 2000 Marine Parade 20th-century architecture in Singapore