Kampung Admiralty: Building for All Ages

Kampung Admiralty has the distinction of being Singapore’s first integrated vertical kampung. A one-stop hub with housing for the elderly and co-located facilities for residents of all ages under one roof, Kampung Admiralty was designed for ease of maintenance and built with sustainable design features. It won World Building of the Year at the 2018 World Architecture Festival, and has also received a number of accolades for its innovative approach.

Lessons and Insights for Future Integrated Developments

The development of Kampung Admiralty suggests several learning points that would be useful in planning future integrated projects:

1. Carry out more intentional planning and selection of co-locators

• Look for compatible partners at the early stage of town development planning, lest the opportunity is lost if these potential partners have committed to their own individual developments.
• Provide scale to create opportunities for collaboration and co-programming, and amenities to facilitate seniors to lead independent and active lifestyles.
• Integrate healthcare facilities within the same development so that medical staff and volunteers can actively work with senior residents, particularly on chronic disease management; this also eases patient load at hospitals.
• Bigger sites allow more housing units to be integrated into the development, letting more families enjoy the benefits of being co-located with facilities. Providing other flat types for young families also makes the development more vibrant.
• Co-locate child care with senior care facilities to promote inter-generational bonding.

Bonding through inter-generational activities (Source: HDB)

Integrated healthcare (Source: HDB)

2. Observe good universal design principles and user-centric design features

• Be barrier-free and wheelchair-friendly.
• Provide seamless connectivity and plenty of rest-stops.
• Design social communal spaces (such as a community park or 3G playground/fitness corner) to encourage residents to interact daily.

3. Offer shared community spaces

• Provide plenty of shared community spaces to leverage the synergy of co-location, with venues for community engagement and events.
• Encourage seniors to venture out of their homes to interact with other residents by making such community spaces available.
• Include good connectivity to surrounding areas, to help engage other residents in the vicinity.

4. Curate strong co-programming activities

• Co-programming activities should not be left to chance to be developed organically; instead, they should be curated upstream.
• Close coordination amongst agencies is a must. Bring on board facility operators who can propose and implement cross-programming initiatives that capitalise on the synergy of available facilities, and minimise overlaps that might cause confusion and result in wastage.

5. Establish support from co-locating agencies

• Set up a steering committee, well-represented by senior management from the respective co-locating agencies, to oversee the planning and construction of the new development.
• Kampung Admiralty benefited from a Steering Committee which adopted a whole-of-government approach to oversee development.

Lush greenery abounds at Kampung Admiralty (Photo credit: Patrick Bingham-Hall)

Kampung Admiralty: Technology and Sustainable Living

In Kampung Admiralty, a greener, cleaner and more sustainable living environment is created through a number of incorporated features:

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Kampung Admiralty: Technology and Sustainable Living

In Kampung Admiralty, a greener, cleaner and more sustainable living environment is created through a number of incorporated features:

• Active, Beautiful and Clean Waters (ABC Waters) features in Kampung Admiralty include: rain gardens, a storm water management system, and bioswales that treat surface water runoff. Treated rain water is recycled for auto-irrigation of the landscape, saving some 4.1 million litres of tap water annually.
• Lush greenery provides visual relief and brings down the ambient temperature during warmer seasons.
• A Pneumatic Waste Conveyance System, an automated waste collection system that uses a vacuum pipe network to collect household waste for disposal, making the process of collecting waste more efficient, cleaner, greener, and hygienic.
• Solar panels harness solar energy for powering common services in two residential blocks.
• A central courtyard at the Medical Centre provides spatial relief with greenery. Consultation and waiting areas are bathed in natural daylight, promoting wellness and healing. Views towards the Community Plaza below and the Community Park above help seniors to feel connected to nature and to other people. An air well allows for even distribution of light and movement of breeze within the development, promoting natural lighting and reducing the need for artificial lighting.
• Motion sensors at staircases reduce energy consumption.
• An integrated building management system track energy consumption and water usage.
• A fully automated underground bicycle parking system, operated by SecureMyBike, offers secure parking for more than 500 bicycles. This system complements existing surface-level bicycle parking at the Admiralty MRT station, and promotes cycling for residents of all ages in the vicinity.

 

 

Source: HDB

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