Projector X: Riverside, Singapore
Transforming an Old KTV Nightclub into a New Multipurpose Cinema, Social And Arts Space
The Project
The Site: An ex abandoned Chinese girlie disco at the top of Riverside Point, overlooking the river and Clarke Quay.
The Challenge: To enable The Projector to increase its capacity (as existing capacity in Golden Mile Tower is constrained by pandemic regulations) via a popup, by taking over the space for 18 months and turning it into a social space and cinema. The greatest challenge was the short time span and subsequent limited budget to remain feasible
The Vision: To bring together The Projector’s unique slate of programming content in a fun and quirky space, imbibing some positive and creative energy amidst the negative and destructive energy that has come about from the Covid-19 Pandemic and allowing people a peek into the inner workings of its former use.
The original Club X before the conversion to Projector X: Riverside Point.
Our Solution:
Pocket Projects x The Projector came together in this project to present a new popup alternative cinema and social experience, Projector X.
Projector X is The Projector’s pop-up experience focused on adaptive reuse takeovers of disused spaces and creative collaborations, weaving together themes of sustainability, upcycling and creative collaborations into a social experience of discovering quirky spaces, film and art.
Working with Wynk Collaborative as designers, Projector X: Riverside turned the abandoned club’s dance floor into Singapore’s first (and hopefully last!) purpose-built socially-distanced 48 seater cinema equipped with a Digital Cinema Package (DCP) projector and wireless bluetooth headphones for an enhanced audio experience.
Our comfortable, upcycled cinema seats, rescued from being discarded by another cinema, have been rebuilt into standalone pairs, with lots of legroom and a personal coffee table that doubles up as a lap tray for easy consumption of plated food. Six existing KTV booths have been repurposed into a special seating experience for two. The screen itself was hoisted with repurposed rigging, leftover by the club.
The space features a café and bar, which occupies the former club seating area, with magnificent arch windows and a sweeping view of the Singapore River and Fort Canning Hill.
Our Unique Approach: Collaborations & Sustainability
The large amount of space affords a rare opportunity to share this with other creatives in the form of constantly changing collaborations throughout the year. These include art exhibitions along the walls, performances in the cinema hall, digital art and physical art installations. An existing bar counter will be repurposed into a merchandise corner, which can be used for temporary retail pop-ups.
The short time span of the popup and the challenges of feasibility required us to get creative with reuse. Instead of clearing away the junk and starting with a clean slate, we took a very hands-on, DIY and collaborative approach to repurposing the space and salvaging as much as possible.
This includes using mainly second hand furniture, upcycling of old cinema seats from other cinemas, repairing the existing TVs and electronics, creatively adapting the existing fittings, making our own window signage and painting the entire space ourselves and with friends who volunteered to help.
Projector X: Riverside also preserves traces and reminders of the disco space’s recent past, like the KTV booth seats and bar, which people are invited to explore. The result is not a polished and perfect new space, but an authentic, comfortable, quirky and relaxed environment.
Pocket Projects Roles:
Sponsorship and overall project and business operations
Concept development
Development and Design Management
Change of Use
Project Management
Marketing Management
Upcycling and reuse of leftover equipment
Feasibility & financial management
Collaboration outreach
Events Programming
Projector X: Riverside Point
30 Merchant Road, Riverside Point #04-13, 058282
https://theprojector.sg/
Photos by Saad Chinoy, Walter Navarro, and Kae Yuan
