Abstract
This thesis aims to project the future of the retail (i.e. decline in physical retail) and fashion industry (i.e. rise in sustainable fashion) on the traditional textile street of Arab Street in the heritage district of Kampong Glam, by adapting it from physical retail spaces in shophouses to a collaborative community-focused fashion innovation hub for a future-ready local sustainable fashion industry in Singapore, focused on fashion research, design, production and supply. The site chosen is Arab Street in Kampong Glam due as Kampong Glam is one of the four historic districts (Boat Quay, Chinatown, Kampong Glam, Little India) in Singapore. These districts house shophouses that were once largely mixed-use (commercial and residential) areas for the various race groups and, today, have become popular tourist destinations. This project hopes to shift away from Singapore's reliance on rapid rate, business-as-usual construction of entirely new buildings and instead hopes to reevaluate the potential of old buildings, to ensure they stay productive in the future knowledge economy of Singapore. Specifically, in this case, through converting the concentration of textile shops along Arab Street into a sustainable fashion innovation district, in hopes of propelling the nascent creative industries in Singapore through adaptive reuse and infrastructure.