Living and working spaces for artists, hotels, rooftop farms proposed for Pasir Panjang Power District

SINGAPORE — Apartments and work studios for those in the creative and arts industry, rooftop gardening areas and an extension of parks and green spaces are just some of the ideas proposed to transform the old Pasir Panjang Power District at the southern coastline of Singapore.

The Pasir Panjang Power District, situated next to the Labrador Nature Reserve further up Pasir Panjang Road, was Singapore’s powerhouse in early post-war years, supplying power to fuel the push towards industrialisation, but was vacated in the 1980s. 

The authorities are planning to repurpose the 15ha site as part of the Greater Southern Waterfront redevelopment project, and from April to June last year, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and Singapore Land Authority (SLA) called for ideas and designs in a competition.

Ten winning entries and concepts were selected from a pool of 79 entries from students, architectural professionals and members of the public, and will be displayed at the URA’s Maxwell Road Centre until Feb 7.

Visitors may leave their comments and suggestions for the power district’s redevelopment via a feedback wall onsite. 

Ms Claire Chan, URA’s director for physical planning (Central West), said that the authority has launched a Request for Information exercise on Monday (Jan 13), where it will discuss with developers on how to revive the power district based on concepts from the winning entries and whether they are workable.

The exercise will last until April this year before the land is put up for redevelopment.

Of the winning entries, only one clinched a spot in the first-place grouping: A concept in the tertiary category by a group of master’s degree students from the Singapore University of Technology and Design.

Named Merging Spaces, it focused on water sustainability by interspersing features such as fishing ponds, coral reefs and filtration canals running through residential and commercial areas. 

The students envisioned a “hydro hub” at the core of the resurrected power district. The hub would double as a mall and a research laboratory for cutting-edge water technologies.

Ms Lun Ci Min, 22, one of the project’s team members, said that Singapore has had struggles with water independence in the past and they want to see the Pasir Panjang district as one where water becomes a “new power player”. 

Another winning entry, Green Erosion by architect Charles Wee, proposed melding the site with the greenery of the neighbouring Labrador Nature Reserve.

A key feature in his design, which was submitted under the open category and ranked in the third-place grouping, is a park connector that snakes through the district itself. 

With a stepped roofline on the main buildings in the district, there could be spaces for rooftop farming and gardens.

Mr Wee, 38, the principal architect of his own firm CJWA Architects, said: “I saw that there were two hills on both sides, and in the middle there was a valley. So to connect the green in between, I felt that we should let the green invade into the site.”

A group of architects who won special mention in the professional category took note of a pair of 75m-high chimneys that used to be atop the now disused Power Station A and decided to recreate their silhouette by designing two residential towers in their place. 

One of these new towers would serve as a residential tower for artists and people doing creative work, while the other would be a hotel. Each of the towers could hold up to 300 units.

Below, the power station itself would be used as a co-working space and an exhibition area for artists to showcase their work.

Mr Stephen Shen, 27, from ID Architects, said that the team honed in on the chimneys in their proposal because they are “what makes a power station a power station”.

National Development Minister Lawrence Wong said on Monday at the launch of the design exhibits that the competition was part of the “Singapore Together” ethos, to involve the public in shaping the nation’s future.

He also said that Singaporeans should be able to see the developments around Pasir Panjang and Labrador Park MRT Station begin to take shape by the mid-2020s.

“In 20 years’ time, when you walk down from Marina Bay to Pasir Panjang, you will start to see the transformation of the area into a new, exciting and completely different waterfront,” he added.

Besides the power district, the Government’s plans to rejuvenate the southern part of Singapore include redeveloping the land on which Keppel Club sits to build 9,000 public and private housing units with waterfront promenades, greenery and open spaces.

Pulau Brani, which houses a port terminal, is earmarked to house new attractions similar to the Universal Studios on Sentosa island, as well as a new resort called Downtown South.

Plans to move the port terminals of PSA International at Tanjong Pagar, Keppel, Pulau Brani and Pasir Panjang to the new Tuas port are already underway. The city terminals are expected to move to Tuas by 2027, and the Pasir Panjang terminal by 2040.