Underground structures in Singapore Part 1: The underground campus

NUS is no small campus. It has so many faculties and facilities- Science, Engineering, libraries, the SRC... Utown was even added recently to provide the booming student population with more lecture theatres and recreational places. Yet we somehow feel that these are not enough. We need more classrooms, more lecture theatres, more sports amenities, more laboratories. But we are already squeezing the very last land space we have, any more and the school would lose its beauty and liveability. At this point you might have guessed. Yes, go underground!

Both NUS and NTU have just finished their exploratory research on the feasibility of underground development. NUS vice-president of campus infrastructure, Yong Kwet Yew mentioned in an interview by the Straits Times that going below ground can allow the space of Kent Ridge campus to be maximised while keeping the present green and open spaces aboveground. He raised the possibilities of “sports facilities, classrooms, libraries, auditoriums and even research laboratories, data centres and parking structures”. However, there was no real proposal for the construction of these buildings and Dr Yong called for more studies on ways to make underground areas more comfortable such as using natural illumination.

As for NTU, there are plans to build a four-storey underground learning centre and a three floors worth of sports hall below ground. The lucky NTU students would one day get to swim in an underground swimming pool! (Feng, 2013)

What about SMU you may ask? SMU already has an underground link-way that connects the five major buildings and the Bras Basah MRT station (The Business Times, 2013).

Is the idea of expanding underground good news for you? If we cache some of our buildings underground the surface would look less ‘cluttered’. We can afford to have more trees and even wildlife. It would be a wise move to shift air-conditioned buildings below the surface since they would then require less energy for cooling. However, for large scale buildings like libraries and auditoriums, safety measures have to be thoroughly studied and communicated to students. Hence, for a start, laboratories should still remain on the surface due to the higher risk of a fire hazard where the effects would be more rampant in underground enclosed spaces.

When we talk about studying, we probably would not think it a big deal to have it underground, but when it comes to actually living underground permanently that is when we would start hesitating.

Literature cited: 

Feng, Z. K. (2013) NUS, NTU complete studies on underground campus. The Sunday Times, Home. p.18. [Online] 14 July 2013. Available from http://newshub.nus.edu.sg/news/1307/PDF/CAMPUS-st-14jul-p18.pdf. [Accessed 3 October 2014]

The Business Times. (2013) NUS, NTU look into underground expansion. p.8. [Online] 24 September 2013. Available from http://www.smu.edu.sg/sites/default/files/smu/news_room/smu_in_the_news/2013/sources/sept24/bt_20130924_1.pdf. [Accessed 3 October 2014]