CUBE and My Urban Backyard Exhibition is a small Urban and Built Environment showcase organized by the URA as part of the Challenge for the Urban and Built Environment (CUBE). Held at the City Galley URA building. The exhibition aims to showcase built environment ideas portrayed through school projects. The event is jointly produced during the CUBE workshop for pre-university students. Participants includes Singapore Junior Colleges and Polytechnics.
Moreover, the exhibition is situated at the Level 1 open atrium of the URA Centre. The exhibition building is geographically located right beside maxwell food center. Also, the venue is within a 10 minute walking distance from Tanjong Pagar MRT station. There is parking available at the URA building.
Simply put, the My Urban Backyard exhibition is a platform for various schools, ranging from the primary to pre-university level, to present their visions for urban planning. The brainchild of the event were ideas from the 16 schools, as showcased in the exhibition. It runs for the month of April. from 23 March till 27 April 2018.
School Exhibits
Furthermore, works here on display see contributions of design tasks submitted from various post-secondary education institutions from Singapore. In addition, the showcase comprise of mostly printed works and drawn concepts, as well as a combination of print and physical models. The printed materials are displayed on vertical display stands. They are neatly lined all along the lower atrium of the building first floor.
The displays are typical of that of your high school science fair displays. Here, models made out recycled materials all crudely and rudimentary put together. Also, physical displays such as paper and cardboard models have their own space in front of the stands. These showcases studies and research on design and built concepts form around the world. Moreover, this includes those by the Netherlands and Switzerland. just to name afew.
The models are nice simple and creative. Some of the exhibits are pretty brilliant. One such example is a tasks to redesign the Mei Chin neighborhood in Queenstown. Another such notable project is Yishun Junior College Warung project. It aims to preserve the Kampung Spirit through an Eco food hub at the Commonwealth Queenstown area.
Notably, this was conceptualised through a modern “super tree” like formation of buildings. Additionally, there was even a rather adorable display of the Jalan Besar area by the fast-extinct bamboo clothes drying poles we know of in older HDB estates.
Built-up model of Singapore
Furthermore, a display highlight is a large cardboard scale model of all the buildings in Singapore. It fronts the display as grand center piece. The large exhibition model sits center stage, being laid out in it’s very own sector. It is located similarly in first floor open lobby atrium of the URA building. It is presumably those managed by the URA. The modules includes all residential buildings as well as commercial buildings in the central business district.
Also, the buildings in the model are represented using a combination of cardboard and wooden blocks. 3D building models build using cardboard and held up using a combination of of tape and blue tack adhesives. Also, small green wall pins used to demarcate trees. Also, shown on the model too are new developments. Areas of interest includes the soon-to-be developed Punggol North digital hub village as well as the new Tuas port extension.
Moreover, the model is an accurate scale representation of the Singapore built up areas. The density of the certain areas such as the central business district and mature housing board estates like those in Ang Mo Kio, Toh Payoh and Punggol. Moreover, it also paints how densely populated Singapore actually is.
Notably, only sectors like the central water catchment area and military training areas in Jurong West are clear and devoid of high rise building developments. Moreover, restricted areas such as government buildings, army and air force bases are not shown.
A good place to chill with ideas
All in all, you are good at the my urban backyard for about 30 minutes. There isn’t too many displays to bore you with content. The exhibition is highly accessible and all conveniently laid out on the open lobby atrium of the URA building. It is a good break from the buzz of the central business district to see the student works on display at both exhibitions. Also, the exhibition is also open on weekends with free admission.
CUBE & My Urban Backyard Exhibition
