[22 October 1999]
SMU Campus as An I-Village
Winning ideas from the public on the ideal campus for the Millenium

THE CONCEPT of the new Singapore Management University (SMU) city campus as an I-VILLAGE (Ideas Village) and an E-business hub were among the prize winners in the SMU Ideas competition held recently.

Seventeen winning ideas were picked from 123 entries received from members of the public for the contest. The public were invited to submit their ideas on the design, physical development and environment of the new city campus now being planned. At the core of the brief was how the campus, in the Bras Basah Park area, could engage the wider needs of the public in the heart of the city.

SMU's city campus is expected to begin operations in the historic downtown area in 2003. The ideas contest ended in May, but the judges found the task of choosing the best ideas from the entries challenging.

Mr Ho Kwon Ping, chairman of SMU, awarded prizes totaling $23,000 at a presentation to coincide with the opening of SMU's new office facilities at Goldbell Towers on Scotts Road recently.

Mr Zaid bin Hamzah, 39, a lawyer specialising in E-commerce governance, submitted two winning entries for the city campus as I-Village and an E-Commerce hub.

His wife, Mdm Rubaayah Abu Hassan, 39, a homemaker, also won for her idea of creating an E-Civilisation Corner at the new campus.

"The E-Civilisation Corner will focus on the business applications of the lessons from history via state-of-the art multi-media facilities," she said.

Sun Tzu's Art of War, for example, would be made more accessible through graphic images and text and would be part of a "nutshell" series where SMU students could gain access to the wealth of the history of civilization through CD-Roms and other high-tech means.

Mr Zaid's I-Village would be centrally located in the city campus. A virtual and physical market place for ideas, it would encourage both SMU students, faculty and the business community to mingle in a relaxed outdoor environment.

"But it should be air-conditioned!" Mr Zaid said. The village would feature a café, bookstore, and a large electronic digital billboard. It would serve as the place to network and brainstorm business ideas.

"This is my personal wish for what a new campus should have. I was educated in the US and there were living examples if how an I-Village can exist," he added.

Other entries included suggestions for the physical layout and architectural features of the campus, highlighting futuristic buildings and materials for the first major new university to open in the Millenium.

Many entries showed concern for conserving the existing buildings in the historic area in Bras Basah. The concept of an "open campus" with structures that would complement and be sympathetic to the mood of the area recurred in several entries.

Open park spaces, rich plant life, a network of underground service tunnels and a height restriction on campus buildings to maintain harmony with existing buildings were other suggestions.

IT suggestions included underground lecture rooms and libraries served by sophisticated IT systems and a "morphology" of corridors, ramps, elevators and people movers to aid the handicapped. Advanced technology would also tackle the water and energy needs of the new campus by focusing on ecologically friendly methods for the university's needs.

"The ideas submitted by the public show that they had given considerable thought to SMU's city campus. It will be in the heart of the Bras Basah area and it will affect the lives of all Singaporeans," Mr Ho said.