Un narrador de historias en Chinatown
Hace dos años, durante nuestro paseo por Chinatown en Singapur, un trabajador estaba terminando los últimos detalles del nuevo gran letrero sobre la puerta de entrada al Chinatown...
A Cathedral for Leisure Hours
Publicado: 18.10.2026
In Singapore, there used to be a railway line running from North to South, which no longer exists today, as it is no longer needed due to the many metro lines. I have already walked a large part of this former track corridor, as there is now a path running along the old tracks. It is a green recreational band through the city, actively used by cyclists, joggers, and pedestrians.
I reported about this on Instagram in 2022: Rail Corridor Part I + Rail Corridor Part II.
Today, I want to explore a new architectural design in the Rail Corridor near the Buena Vista metro station. Leaving the metro station, we wind our way down a path to the Rail Corridor and walk a bit south along the path. A new green area with a playground has been created after the underpass.
This blends harmoniously with the surrounding office building landscape of the innovation center 'one-north'.
We walk towards the new office complex Elementum, where a distance sign in the old design of a level crossing is elegantly placed at a road junction. The path also features some railway sleepers for effect.
Inside Elementum, there is a statue by the Colombian artist Fernando Botero in the public area, which is not to my taste at all, and I find his sculpture with its pretentious black design quite ugly. It proves that art is purely a matter of taste.
Just two metro stations further along the Circle Line is a new... well, what is it actually? It is neither a shopping mall, nor an office complex, nor a park, nor a recreational facility. It is all of those combined. The 'Geneo' follows a 'mini-city' concept. It connects state-of-the-art workspaces and research facilities with lush green areas and lifestyle offerings in the Singapore Science Park. The atrium invites one to linger and is designed like a cathedral.
On the side of the atrium, there are restaurants.
Please note the small robot in the bottom left corner of the following photo, with which you can talk and which provides information about Geneo. It could inform you that the atrium is supported by arches made of solid wood reaching up to 25 m high and that the entire facility covers an area of 180,600 m², encompassing five modern buildings intertwining through gardens and the atrium.
I linked a video of a detailed tour of the premises in my Taibang blog last May: Cathedral Architecture for a Shopping Mall.
We now dive back into the underground MRT station Kent Ridge and begin our tour to visit newly opened metro stations not far from Geneo along the MRT Circle Line.
First, we look at the Keppel station, where the tunnel boring work for the three new stations of the Circle Line is explained.
By the way, with the three new stations, the circle of the metro line is now complete, which now runs in a circular path around the city center of Singapore.
The ceiling of the Keppel station is adorned with a design of a tunnel boring machine head, and below it is a model of such a tunnel boring machine. At the very front, a real 'Disc Cutter' that broke the rock can be seen.
Our tour continues to the MRT station Cantonment, which is designed with 24 vertical illuminated glass panels representing flowing water reflections.
At the end, there is an iconic clock. The clock is embedded in two circular rings that represent the Circle Line itself. Additionally, the transfer stations of the metro line are specially highlighted on the dial, making the clock a stylized functional line map.
Now we switch metro lines and take the Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL) eastwards. At the Gardens by the Bay station, which is located on reclaimed land on the island of Singapore, land reclamation is depicted through maps over time.
The Katong Park station has a wood-colored design with integrated light elements.
In the intermediate level, people are artistically displayed with contemporary and historical photos of the area.
At Tanjong Katong station, a giant multi-story photo collage with a large water slide as the central element is installed on the wall. The mural integrates a photograph of the former Big Splash water park, which was located in the nearby East Coast Park. This park operated from 1977 to 2006 and was famous for its distinctive large water slide.
The Bayshore station shines with bright glass bricks, giving the metro station a bright modern appearance.
Our last station, Marine Parade, on the other hand, has received a green ceiling and side cladding, with lighting at the ceiling created by large white stars left out.
Singapore designs its metro stations in this artistic form and has initiated the 'Art-in-Transit' program of the Land Transport Authority (LTA). Since many more metro stations will be built in the coming years, this will not be my last arts and design tour.
In the next blog post, I will take a look at the artistic displays with historical reference in another MRT station and visit the plenary chamber of the old parliament.
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