HDB 'Cool Ideas for Better HDB Living'
Competition 2016 - 1st Prize
Re-imagined Chess Area : The Hubbub

Upon joining the competition, me and my coursemate were instructed to join 3 other teammates who were juniors from the same Diploma course to produce a project for HDB 'Cool Ideas for Better HDB Living' Competition.

Thus we had to work with people we met for the first time and also figure out how our group dynamics can work to our advantage when disseminating workloads during stage 2 of the competition so as to complete the project within the limited timeframe given.

We each have to manage our own school projects and curriculum while working on this competition, thus time management skills were utmost important as we often come together as a group to ideate and solve problems.

Roles & Responsibility:

Team Lead Especially During Meetings
Ideation & Conceptualization
Form & Sound Research
Site Photography
Photoshop
Concept Graphics

Tools: Sketchup, Vray, Adobe Photoshop & Adobe Illustrator

Stage 2 Timeframe: Jun - Nov 2016

Problem Statement

Noise from Void Decks & Playgrounds
It would seem that Singaporeans are noise intolerant nowadays. The Straits Times recently reported on Town Councils approach in dealing with such issues arising from children playing soccer in the void deck to a Town Council imposing a ban on the playing of chess in the void deck and linkways among some of the more rowdy residents.

There is also this issue of noisy children playing in the playground which are near our housing blocks.

How do we deal with such noise emanating from the void decks or nearby playground in our denser and ever closer built housing environment. Do you all have better ideas than those adopted by Town Councils to tackle such noise issues. What other innovative ways can you think of that will resolve such problems in our HBD estates.

Approach

Inspired by chess players setting up make-shift playing sessions near linkways of HDBs, we thought of creating a space connected to the linkway in order to reduce noise, provide connectivity for residents and ease of access for wheelchair users.

Targeting The Problem

We first looked at the root cause of the noise travelling to the HDB living quarters above the void decks.

Thus we decided to craft our solution around the problem we have identified by diving deep into research regarding forms and how sound travel to better target the problem at hand.

Through our findings, we now know that since having chess areas underneath the void deck is not suitable as sound travels very easily, we decided to think out of the box. (more on that later)

Credit

Sound & Form Research

Figure 2. Sound vs distance

Our findings from Figure 2 tells us that sound gets diminished the further away from the sound source it gets. Thus we know our structure should be placed as far from the HDB apartments as possible.

With reference to Figure 3, research shows that sound will build up when there is a ceiling above the confined space. So we designed for surfaces to be applied with different sound absorbing/reflective materials depending on the structure/form they take on.

From Figure 4, we found out that slanted surfaces can redirect sound in a certain direction.

Thus for Figure 5 & 6 we explored different forms and their characteristics in terms of sound.

Figure 5. Curved form

We found that the form slanted upwards was the most suitable which facilitates in directing the sound upwards to a sound absorbing material.

As such, the slanted form became central to our design in order to create a conducive space for avid chess players.

Figure 1. Sound travel at void decks

Figure 3. Sound reflection build up

Figure 4. Surface forms

Figure 6. Slanted form

Figure 7. Location

The proposed location in Figure 7 of the re-imaged chess area is moved from the void deck area to the linkways in between HDB blocks and bus stops.

As the distance away from the blocks is increased, there will be lesser noise that will reach the residences.

Figure 8. Wind ventilation

Strutures positioned as seen in Figure 8, so that wind path would direct sound to where it does not reach the blocks.

Figure 9. Sound waves representation

Walls of proposed structure will contain sound-proofing materials and direct sound away from HDB blocks.

We selected sound reflective polycarbonate walls whereby it will redirect sound towards the ceiling which blocks the sound path travelling towards the HDB blocks nearby.

The proposed ceiling has fiber glass board to further diffuse the sound redirected upwards from the polycarbonate walls and reduce noise escaping from the structure.

Figure 10. Materials selection and final form

Model Making For Exhibition

More Renderings