AVIATION HERITAGE PRECINCT
Rejuvenating Paya Lebar Airport - A vision for a vibrant post-Covid-19 aviation-themed tourism, hospitality, leisure, and cultural precinct that celebrates Paya Lebar's aviation heritage.
Project Type
Master Planning, Urban Design, Placemaking
Client
Year
URA
2020
Aviation Heritage Precinct is a response to a call made by Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) to develop concept proposals for a cluster of former airport buildings located within Paya Lebar Airbase, which will gradually be relocated from the 2030s onwards, opening it up for redevelopment.
The former airport buildings comprise the terminal building, control tower offices, & hangars and are distinguished by their distinctive architecture and identity related to their former functions. The brief asked for design strategies on how to repurpose these buildings and, with new buildings and public spaces, create a precinct with a unique identity for the future town.
DEUS Bureau's proposal leans in on this aviation heritage for the precinct master plan. It will be anchored by the sensitive restoration and adaptive re-use of the former airport's Terminal Building, Ticketing Hall, Arrival Wing, and Control Tower Building into a unique airport-themed integrated resort hotel complex.
This proposed conversion respects and celebrates the airport's rich history and distinctive design whilst leveraging on the similarities of the check-in process and user experience for both airports and hotels.
In a post-pandemic future where international travel has become less accessible and convenient, there is a unique value proposition in a space with an ambience that celebrates the golden age of travel of the 1950s and 1960s.
An airport-themed hotel will offer travel lovers the best possible version of the air travel experience without all the danger and inconveniences. It will be a staycation that will almost be like the real thing.
The proposed resort hotel will build upon the relatively perfectly preserved sleek modernist architecture of the airport, which had exquisite details that were considered avant-garde in Singapore at the time. The conversion will preserve these features to create a memorable and distinctive ambience for a resort hotel that evokes the allure and glamour of mid-century air travel.
For instance, the terminal building - a dramatic double-volumed space with luxurious features such as the marble pillar-supported high ceiling, gold mosaic tiles, floating dog-leg staircases, and mosaic mural of the Singapore waterfront, would make an ideal lobby area for the integrated resort hotel. The former airport's distinctively iconic and perfectly preserved mushroom-shaped information booth would make a logical conversion as the hotel's reception desk.
The former ticketing hall, once a space where people can buy airline tickets to leave Singapore and explore other parts of the world, will become a place where people can experience food culture from around the world without ever leaving Singapore. It will have a new lease of life as an international food hall where the former airline ticketing counters will be converted into booths serving cuisine and gastronomic delights from different parts of the globe.
The air traffic control tower building, a multi-storey linear modernist block, lends itself to be converted into the main wing for hotel rooms. The former control tower building is topped by an octagonal control room, with sweeping views of the surroundings which make it an ideal space for a roof-top bar or restaurant.
In addition to the retained legacy structures, the unique selling points of the proposed aviation-themed integrated resort complex include the creative re-use of vintage aircraft that were in use at Paya Lebar airport during its heyday.
A decommissioned Singapore Airlines Boeing 747 jumbo jet will be the
centrepiece of the resort hotel grounds. It will have its interior fitted out with
hotel rooms (including a premium "cockpit suite") to offer guests a truly unique and memorable experiential stay.
In addition, a supersonic Concorde turbojet will also be restored, with its interior converted into a retro-themed destination restaurant, cocktail bar, and lounge.
Paya Lebar Museums Sub-precinct
Hangar 5 is another building on the site with key heritage significance that is to be reimagined as per the competition brief. The steel-framed structure,
brought across from the even older Kallang Airport, will be converted into an aviation museum in DEUS Bureau's Aviation Heritage Precinct proposal. This will have synergy with the existing Singapore Air Force Museum that is located and will be retained in the same vicinity. Together with other potential new cultural institutions, they will form a nascent museums sub-precinct in Paya Lebar.
