Day to night: Rejuvenating Clarke Quay with a Green rating update
3 AUGUST 2022 – The riverside precinct of Clarke Quay in Singapore was historically a conduit for trade. Since the 1800s, warehouses along the waterfront saw a bustle of activity with commodities unloaded and re-loaded onto traditional tongkang and twakow ships.
Refreshed property façade at Tan Tye Place. All images by CapitaLand; Meta Architecture; Formwerkz Architects
But after shipment activities were redirected to Keppel Harbour in the 1980s, the area was redeveloped into a heritage-based commercial and entertainment district at the fringe of the central business district. Clarke Quay has since gained popularity as a dining and nightlife hub, offering all-ages attractions with picturesque lights along the river.
To optimise the opportunity for outdoor spaces, the area is being enhanced as a day-and-night destination called CQ @ Clarke Quay with upgraded thermal comfort infrastructure, restoration of warehouse façades, pet-friendly and universal design enhancements, alongside an upgrade in Green building rating.
Heritage-informed design
Seating and ramp at Read Bridge Heritage warehouse unit with skylight
The update will offer day-to-night dining, retail and entertainment activities throughout three main zones: the Riverfront; Warehouses and Circuit zones.
This rejuvenation was conceptualised by Meta Architecture and Formwerkz Architects. The design focus was to uncover the origins of Clarke Quay and enable people to discover more hidden stories. To that effect, the facade of warehouses will be given a new paint of heritage colours, which reference historical palettes and highlight the characteristics of the godown (warehouse) typology.
In a nod to Read Bridge’s past as a social gathering place for storytelling, the landing is upgraded with steps that double as seats, alongside a new accessibility ramp with lookout points. Heritage panels, cast iron manhole covers and bronze plate tiles that narrate the history of Clarke Quay will be placed throughout the area to engage visitors.
Green upgrade
View of the revamped CQ @ Clarke Quay from River Valley Road Pet-friendly alfresco dining areas along the Singapore River
Around 34 per cent of the total project cost is dedicated to Green features, such as a more energy-efficient chiller and a new ETFE (ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) canopy. Providing environmental design consultancy for CQ @ Clarke Quay is London-headquartered Atelier Ten, which was also involved in optimising the thermal comfort of Jewel Changi Airport and Gardens by the Bay.
To increase the daytime thermal comfort of the property’s inner streets, its existing angel-shape canopy will be replaced by one of the best performing ETFE membranes in the market, which can reduce solar heat gain by up to 70 per cent while maintaining comfortable daylight conditions.
A new omni-directional angel fan will be installed to enhance air circulation and achieve more than 50 per cent in energy reduction as compared to the current single-directional fan. It is also equipped with evaporative mist cooling, which can lower the environmental temperature by approximately 2 degrees Celsius without creating water droplets on surfaces.
With the upcoming enhancement of its property management systems, CQ @ Clarke Quay is expected to upgrade its green building rating conferred by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) from Green Mark Certification to Green Mark GoldPLUS. It will continue to operate throughout the rejuvenation period, which will be carried out in phases from 3Q 2022 to 3Q 2023.
Asset enhancement is a topic that FuturArc will cover in our upcoming 3Q 2022: Reinterpretation issue. Stay tuned on our social media for updates!
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