1.  

2. 1. Site Selection

Traditionally, travelling exhibitions are placed in high footfall areas such as libraries and shopping malls. However, there is a mismatch between the chosen site, and the overall goal of our travelling exhibition, which is education through the community. Hence we devised a set of criteria to determine the new site for our travelling exhibitions.

1. 1. Foot Traffic - Sites which are open to the public must have consistent and higher foot traffic. 

2. 2. Intensity of Existing Activities On-site - Sites must match the slower pace of a travelling exhibition.

3. 3 Relevance to the Central Concept of Community – Sites must have a permanent community which can be engaged by the travelling exhibition

From these criteria, we determined that living-adjacent spaces such as the Housing Development Board (HDB) void decks and open plazas would allow for our project to be most effective in its reach and context.

3. Frame Module

For the structure, we adopted a frame truncated octahedron design which would take up less space when undeployed so it is easier to store. It also uses less material, allowing us to attach panels between different parts of the frame only where needed. As such, the panel attaching mechanism was also designed so that panels can be attached after the structure is built which would allow for greater adaptability.

4. User Journey

Spoke

Placed at bus stops around the site and made of the same modules as the main hub, the spokes serve three distinct functions:

1. Attract the attention of passersby - The spoke intentionally stands out from its surroundings, drawing attention to itself. A small excerpt of content from the main hub will be displayed on the spoke as a teaser. Physical artefacts can also be displayed in the spoke to further draw the attention of passerby.

2. Direct passersby to the main hub - The spoke is in the form of an arrow, which is pointed towards the main hub when placed on site. There will also be a QR code on the spoke which can be scanned to open Google Maps, directing them to the main hub.

3. Introduce users to the accompanying phone app - The spoke will contain information about the functionalities of the app and how to download the app

Hub

The main hub is where visitors can experience the full exhibition. Apart from simply displaying content, the main hub is also designed to be a full spatial experience.

AR Drawing

In addition to the physical spatial experience, the solution seeks to promote community cohesion through an AR drawing application.  Using the app, visitors scan an event-specific totem to access its AR drawing activity, where they will be prompted to create their own artworks.

Once finished, the AR drawing can be uploaded onto a community platform, where it will be displayed for members of the community to appreciate.  In return, visitors receive a stamp, which they can collect in exchange for rewards.

Problem: Current Travelling Exhibitions

NHB’s Heritage on the Move aims to make heritage more accessible by bringing exhibitions to people. Despite expectations that restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic can convert planned museum visits to micro-visits to travelling exhibitions, the existing format still faces issues such as low footfall and public engagement due to their more traditional design and non-interactive format. Furthermore, components for the exhibitions often cannot be repurposed and reused,  which  makes them unsustainable, as their production and maintenance costs outweigh the benefits.

2. Hub and Spoke Model

Inspired by how NHB uses travelling exhibitions to attract visitors to their main exhibitions in the museums, we adopted a similar hub and spoke model for frameworks.

The hub serves as the main space of the exhibition, while the spokes serve as satellite exhibitions that are interspersed within a chosen site to make the travelling exhibition even more accessible to people and aim to draw visitors into the hub.

Taking Simei as a sample site for our travelling exhibition, a site analysis will have to be performed to determine where to place the respective hub and spokes. To determine to the boundary of the site for the travelling exhibition, we used the boundaries of Residents’ Committees to guide our placement of the hub and spokes.

The hub is then placed in a public spaces near transport nodes and routes and activity spaces will have the highest footfall, maximising its exposure to the public. The spokes are placed at transport nodes (bus stops) around the site to direct passersby to the main hub.

Circulation within the potential site for the hub is also analysed to determined how to better design the exhibition.