Alumni collaborate to document the extended life of an iconic mall of the past – Peace Centre

Peace Centre was a 47-year-old mall on Sophia Road slated for demolition. Upon learning that the mall’s closure was postponed to house a social incubation project, two alumni –Pang Hwee Min Ethel and Esther Koh (both from Class of 2023) and Felix Galistan – came together in July 2023, to embark on a creative documentation cum residency project.

“The taking over of an entire mall, which was set to be demolished, for the purposes of social and environmental good was a really exciting and unique experiment that I have not seen in the Singapore context,” said Ethel. She saw this as an opportunity to start conversations about spatial use and reuse in Singapore for social good, community building and creative pursuits.

Calling their project A Piece of Peace Centre, the trio invited other creatives and researchers to join them in documenting their time at Peace Centre. In total, the project housed four ‘Creative Residents’, all of whom employed different artistic mediums and approaches to documentation. The Creative Residents included two movement artists, a ‘documenter’ who works with and investigates all forms of documents, a ground-up citizen historian, and a photographer cum videographer. Together, this emerging collective sought not just to capture the unfolding of the social incubation project, but also to build a creative community.

At the heart of A Piece of Peace Centre was the dream to create space for people to gather, experience, learn, create, and take action together regarding topics and matters that people care about. “It was for people who care about what happens in Singapore, about art, about community, and want a community of practice to, well, practise with,” shared Ethel.

To have a space for communal gathering and learning, the trio rented a unit within the mall that was treated as a “home base”. Said Esther, “We were learning what it meant to co-create a space – one that was safe for conversations, experimentation, expression, and engaging with subjects that mattered to us. At the same time, we were sharing and inhabiting a physical space, which involved cleaning it, setting parameters, creating schedules, and so on. It is profound to experience space ownership, which is rare in Singapore.”

This welcoming home base also hosted casual social gatherings, book clubs, and a public workshop series, attracting people from diverse backgrounds, including artists, architects, urban planners, and community builders. One such event was a two-part workshop series titled ‘What do we do with our nostalgia?’, conducted by Ethel and Esther. Redressing the societal phenomenon of nostalgia that often leaves the individual feeling stuck, Ethel and Esther facilitated participants through varying theories and critiques on nostalgia in the first session, and moved onto brainstorming new ways of engaging with nostalgia in the second session.

“Everyone who participated brought something of their own to share — a story, an object, a thought or idea. It reminded me of a community classroom, where everyone had a stake in the learning of the group,” reflected Esther.

The highly collaborative nature of A Piece of Peace Centre also drew Yale-NUS student Justin Tan (Class of 2025) and alumna Chan Yi Qian (Class of 2023), to host a workshop of their own. Yi Qian was a Creative Resident of A Piece of Peace Centre, whereas Justin was drawn to Peace Centre because of his growing interest in strata malls and their propensity for being sites of community development. The two collaborated on a workshop about the practice and forms of documentation.

“In interfacing with various creative documentation practices that were happening in response to the loss of Peace Centre, I recognised the value this space provided for reflecting, sharing and learning from one another, especially in how we make sense of individual experiences through documentation,” said Justin.

When asked about the challenges faced, Ethel mentioned the experimental nature of the social incubation project, as well as the unforeseeable changes that had sprung up. “There were a lot of things we were entering into for the first time, such as manning a physical unit. Along the way, big changes occurred like the central air-conditioning of the building breaking down and delaying the move-in process by a whole month for everyone,” said Ethel. “Learning to adapt and make decisions about the direction of the project was my biggest personal challenge.”

The culmination of months of work came during the project’s closing weekend in January, where Creative Residents presented their final deliverables. This included the Resident ground-up historian facilitating a community-tour of Peace Centre and Peace Mansion, and movement artists delivering a performance art piece, titled ‘Sorry for the inconvenience.’ Other collaborations and activities focused on the architecture of demolition, and navigated themes of grief and loss. That weekend was a highlight for Ethel, who witnessed many old friends and new acquaintances gather on the final days of Peace Centre. To her, it was a living, visible symbol of A Piece of Peace Centre.

While the project has wrapped up, some of its organisers and Creative Residents have expressed interest in producing other work inspired by their time as part of A Piece of Peace Centre, such as publishing an art book. The team is currently incubating a more organised, long-term collective spawning from the same energy and intention of A Piece of Peace Centre.

As we await more updates about this emerging collective, learn more about A Piece of Peace Centre at their Instagram and temporary Notion site.