Kallang Kolam Ayer SINGAPORE [SG]

The Future of the Industry in the City

Kallang Kolam Ayer (KKA) was an urban design competition launched by JTC for the regeneration of 109-hectares adjacent industrial estates in the centre of Singapore. The design brief was to transform these estates into a cohesive industry 4.0 and commercial district including residential plots, collaborative spaces, integrated blue and green networks, as well as circular and mobility strategies. Fostering resilience of the built environment, multi-layered incremental regeneration based on flexible plot toolbox, and sustainable ecosystem principles, KCAP’s vision transformed KKA to welcome a community of innovative entrepreneurs focused on edge technologies at the interface of manufacturing and design, research and development, within exemplary inner-city estates opened to the public and showcasing the future of Singapore industry.

As part of the eldest industrial estates built in Singapore, Kallang Kolam Ayer (KKA) are locaed in Singapore’s central area and surrounded by mature communities. KKA will act as an industrial hinge between Singapore’s Downtown Core and large-scale facilities elsewhere, linking industrial, business, and cultural nodes. The uniqueness of a high-density industry district directly at the edge of the city centre is a specific condition for industrial programs and logistics that complement the needs of the city centre while being served from outside. The functional clustering thus will come forward from the fusion of centre- oriented and periphery-oriented programs, where for instance the relationship producer-consumer can be newly defined. KKA provide an opportunity to allocate Industry 4.0 related activities with low-noise, low-emission and innovative logistics to be at the edge of the city-centre in walking distance of major residential neighbourhoods, and well connected to the hinterland.

Our strategy is founded on incremental, sustainable development that creates a richly layered urban fabric and a diverse environment. The existing urban fabric within the sites provides the blueprint for proposed character areas for future developments, such as the loft and start-up zones, the waterfront sites or the larger augmented plots, that will accommodate diverse mixed industrial clusters. As the future programme of the sites is not exactly predictable and tenant landscape are increasingly volatile, these proposed diverse plot typologies will flexibly accommodate programme types and volumes as well as enable different cluster scenarios of industries with similar spatial properties and needs. Away from a plot-by-plot development, this clustering strategy will maximize spatial and functional synergies. Developments will happen with relative independence following our innovative ‘Toolbox for Plot Developments’ based on qualitative and quantitative rules and guidelines that ensure overall coherence yet allow for an incremental roll out over time.

Centralised logistics hubs will organise goods delivery, ensuring an attractive car lite-pedestrian friendly industrial environment re-connected to its surrounding communities without compromising on logistics efficiency. Our Masterplan will strongly reinforce the area’s identity through infusing the framework with green & blue public spaces. Running from Kallang river waterfront to the hearth of both sites, two new landmark parks will reconnect the sites simultaneously to the river and together, contributing to the “City in the Garden” concept. 

Our vision creates a culture and community of entrepreneurs opened to the public with key community facilities in the form of beautifully designed semi-public facilities such as innovation hubs, training centres, food market and hospitality, open spaces networks and active street fronts amongst others, but also direct links to schools, universities and institutions. Kallang and Kolam Ayer will also provide platforms for businesses to scale-up and expand, with affordable and stable rents, term-flexible leases that allow tenants to invest in themselves. This strategy will be supported by a variety of spaces and services such as ‘living-labs’ to test new spatial configurations and share ideas between businesses.