'Green' club for Punggol in 2011

As published in Asia One News
18 Jan 2010 (Monday)

By Jake Chng

AFTER getting eco-friendly flats, Punggol will also have an eco-friendly community club. The $9-million community club, which will open next year, will have a system that pumps rainwater from nearby drains into tanks on its roof. The water will be used to water plants.

The club will also use energy-saving lights and air-conditioners, and have many open-air spaces, including an outdoor gym and a rooftop garden, to promote natural ventilation.

Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC, Miss Penny Low, said that the club's management aims for it to achieve the Building and Construction Authority's highest accolade for "green" buildings, the Green Mark Platinum award.

The club, situated beside shopping mall Punggol Plaza, will be an upgrade over the community centre that it will replace - the 650 sq m Punggol 21 Community Centre, which occupies the void decks of blocks 172B and 172C, Edgedale Plains.

The centre, which opened in 2007, uses its classrooms and void-deck space to organise wellness programmes such as yoga and taiji classes, and open fields for bigger-scale events such as last year's New Year countdown.

The new four-storey club will feature a 456 sq m multi-purpose hall that can be used for badminton and table tennis, two 90 sqmdance studios, and a 206 sqm multimedia IT studio.

It will also have two retail shops on its basement and ground floors, which will be linked to Punggol Plaza via linkways.

Visitorship is expected to grow from the current 300 a day to close to 1,000.

Yesterday, at the club's groundbreaking ceremony, Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean said that the current community centre could not meet the growing needs of Punggol, which is the fastest-growing new town here.

The new club will serve as a meeting place for social and recreational purposes, he said.

Mr Terrence Tan, 35, who is self-employed and lives opposite Punggol Plaza, looks forward to the opening of the club.

He said: "I head down to Sengkang Community Club when I want to meet friends for a game of badminton. But when the new club opens, I'll be sure to go there, since it's so near."

chngjm@sph.com.sg