Bukit Timah Tua Pek Kong Temple Refurbishment

Credits    
Architectural Design:      SPORES_Studio
Team:                             Jackson Tan
                                       Teresa Yeh
     
Project Manager:            SPORES_Studio
Structural Engineer:        KKC Consultancy Services
Lighting Consultant:        Light Collab
Photography:                  N.D Photography

The transformation of an existing open courtyard into a semi-enclosed prayer space is at the heart of SPORES_Studio’s additions and alterations to the Bukit Timah Tua Pek Kong Temple. In this project, SPORES_Studio innovatively fulfilled the client’s brief of providing additional prayer space through a fundamental rethinking and reconfiguring of the existing congested circulation routes.

By introducing a frameless glazed canopy over an existing open courtyard, SPORES_Studio’s inspired approach introduced a new all-weather prayer space spanning from the main building to the temple’s front entrance archway. The existing courtyard’s floor level is further raised to allow direct access to the rest of the temple. This decision removed previous awkward and jarring changes in level and allows for the first time easy wheelchair access across the entire temple premise.  The glazed canopy, which is the highlight of the project, is an intricately detailed roof designed jointly by SPORES_Studio, structural engineer KKC Consultancy Services and the main contractor. To ensure devotees retain visual connectivity between the new prayer area and the sky, SPORES_Studio proposed for the new canopy to be conceived entirely out of glazed structural system. Using Low-E self -cleaning glass for both the canopies and structural beams, high level of transparency is achieved while reducing solar gain and maintenance. The new canopy is also designed as a two-tiered system to encourage natural ventilation while negotiating complex interfacing between the new and old roof.

As part of the refurbishment, SPORES_Studio also collaborated with lighting design firm Light Collab to design and improve the overall lighting system of the temple. Careful selections of energy saving fixtures established the temple as a night time landmark in the midst of the urban bustle in Upper Bukit Timah Road. Further introduction of sensitive and subtle lightings systems help to enhance the architectural spatial quality of the temple; celebrating and revealing the forms, textures, colours and motifs of the temple.