My First Skool at Segar Gardens

MY FIRST SKOOL LCCC AT SEGAR GARDENS is one of the first large childcare centre located by the park. With a built-up area of 2,484 m2, it catered for the teaching and caring of 380 children, comprising infant and toddler care, as well as playgroup, nursery and kindergarten 1 & 2 schooling. The 2,681 m2 site fronts the Zhenghua Nature Park with its playground, circular lawn and jogging track facilities. The single block centre was designed with direction of a natural ventilated centre with visual continuity inside-out to the Nature Park. As the site is approx. 2.7m - 3m higher than the adjacent roads, the 1st storey is mainly planned for main entrance complete with car parking facility and drop off point. The classrooms start at 2nd to 3rd storey with direct connection to Zhenghua Nature Park via internal gentle curvature ramp. The park connection allows the children to have daily experience of learning, playing and exploring the nature, at the same time stimulating them to appreciate, care and grow with nature spirit. East façade has a full view to the park, treated with large fixed glass louvre panels as form of natural ventilation thru the day and natural lighting during the day time. BOH and services are located along the west façade, yet allowing cross ventilation thru the classrooms. The double volume ramp, open concept piazza and classrooms are well covered by high volume low speed (HVLS) fans to enhance the indoor ventilation quality. MY FIRST SKOOL LCCC AT SEGAR GARDENS is a fast-track project which has allowed for a tight 7.5-month construction period. Thus, the design is driven by buildability and constructability besides creating an engaging and responsive design, to the site, the climate and the environment. The design is basically a 3-storey structure grids repetition with open cut approach to avoid retaining walls, which allows easier and faster construction to take place. Materials such as prefabricated columns cage, precast JOE-Green panels, precast ventilations block walls, prefabricated balustrades modules, green roof in roll of mats on top of metal roof finish are used to speed up the construction process. Noteworthy design challenges include responding to user’s needs. To listen, to understand and to fulfill both operational requirement and user’s needs, besides designing interesting yet functional spaces and details. Construction challenges was situated at Bukit Panjang Planning Area with the amount of rainy days, made it one of the biggest challenge in constructing this centre. However, with joint effort of the project team, the project was successfully completed within the given timeframe.