Immortal Kreta Ayer The Revived Theatre District

Kreta Ayer, the original Malay name of the present-day Chinatown area commemorates Singapore’s long interaction with the sea, and also the vital source of clean drinking water that supplied the seafaring traders who came to shore on Telok Ayer Basin. Therefore a new historical lens should be used to focus on Kreta Ayer as a destination of choice for discerning cultural tourists who might want to trace the founding of Singapore, her transformation into a thriving city-state, and in particular the story of the Chinese-speaking communities who have always congregated around this area.

While Singapore’s Chinatown is a major tourist attraction however the mass market approach is not attracting the new wave of tourists who are savvy with technology and therefore capable of independent research. These high-value cultural tourists crave original and authentic experiences and will not settle for simulacrums which unfortunately the current form of Chinatown has degenerated into. In order to be sustainable both environmentally and culturally, Singapore needs to find a solution to upgrade some of its tourist destinations. There is a wealth of treasures such as the regional interpretations of traditional Chinese Operas that can be represented to the public and also to help revitalize the neighbourhood once again as a new theatre district that is anchored by the original art forms and supporting industries and yet open to future forms of performance arts.

We propose transforming the area as an eco-cultural district, reconnecting with the original intangible multi-cultural assets that were integral to the building structures and city fabric, and continuing the legacy from the past to be passed on to future generations. Through the crowd drawing activities of the restored theatres and also the greening of historical urban trails and the creation of a new fountain as a public square that harks back to the founding of Kreta Ayer as a source of life-giving water.

Climate change calls for the reuse and retrofitting of existing buildings in order to minimize embodied carbon footprint and we choose to position the historically and culturally significant Lai Chuen Yuen Theatre as the epicentre of the new Theatre District. With the support of the equally illustrious but similarly abandoned Majestic Theatre as the new performance space, and also to utilize the Kreta Ayer People’s Theatre as an education venue for a new generation of performances and artisans, we see a potential for synergistic traffic density that will address the problems such as low-value tourists.