Segue-Way

The original Bugis Street is representative of Singapore’s markets and its subsequent developments. Having shifted to New Bugis Street, the substitute aims to replicate the same bustling essence. The relationship between new shops and the walkway is now represented within the central aisle.

Although the nature of Bugis Street’s night market atmosphere is characteristic of the space, this element is lost to pervasive store clutter and a dense usage of electronic lighting, resulting in homogeneity. The essence of physical meandering that used to permeate Street markets is eroding from Bugis Street. It is neither a fully commercial or transitory space. With largely transient crowds and declining physical shoppers, this raises the question of how urban corridors from increasingly obsolete spaces can be better crafted to address changing societal behaviors.

The intervention aims to provide balance to the urban noise surrounding in Bugis Street and rekindle the connection with the present, through the delinearisation of the transitory central aisle brought about by the deliberate meandering of transit paths.

The urban prototype functions as nodal breathing spaces punctuating inner Bugis Street. The locations of the nodes are planned based on the degree of crowd retention, to minimize confrontation with the crowd from the central aisle.