ARCADES
Far East Square is built it is known as Pekin Street, this street is named after the capital city of China (Beijing), This street is one of the older streets in Chinatown,
And in the late 1990s, Pekin Street has been converted into a pedestrian mall with the glass-covered walkway (Arcade) and being named Far East Square. However, the exterior of the shophouse has remained the same, the louvred windows, airwells, floor and party walls were still there.
To preserve the rich cultural heritage pedestrian malls in order to revitalise the area, ‘Arcade’ is used, the covered walkway creates and enclose place for the pedestrian to be able to shop in a comfortable environment not worrying about the surrounding temperature.
With the adaptation of Arcades, it is like one stone killing two bird, not only we are able to preserve the rich cultural heritage of this historic area, shophouse along the street was conserved as well.
With the adaptation of ‘Arcade’, the create an enclosed place which used to be open and the covered walkway expands and it will not be so narrow for shopper as they walk through compared to shophouse which only has around the five-foot-wide walkway. The arcade has also seemed to be a form of a huge exhibition to display Singapore Traditional shophouses. Thus, with the adaptation of ‘Arcade’, it has created another form of shopping experience for shoppers and also helps to conserve historical sites of Singapore.