After visiting the site, I found out that the neighborhood is just like any other neighborhood with market, coffee shops, HDB, community club and park.

So what makes Boon Keng special?

I did asked a few people who stay there, and what they told me was that they love staying in this area is because of its location. It is easily accessible to other place especially the food within there, like Swee Choon.

I decided to do on the food around Boon Keng, to show that Boon Keng is easily accessible to other places within 30mins or so.

I went to search and look around what are the food around that is near to Boon Keng. I came out with this 5 location that is rather famous and interesting.

Beach Road Scissors Cut Curry Rice
There is always a queue but don’t worry cause it moves relatively fast. For someone that don’t take spicy like me, the curry there is just nice for us!

229 Jalan Besar, Singapore 208905
Mon – Sun, 11am – 3.30am
Chye Seng Huat Hardware
Apparently this is not a hardware store but a cafe! This shop retained the rustic feel of the old shop house, with the old signboard and the metal grills. It’s quite a interesting place to visit in the neighborhood.

150 Tyrwhitt Road, Singapore 207563
Tues – Fri, 9am – 7pm, Sat and Sun 9am – 10pm (closed on Mon)
Hungry Heroes
Theme restaurants are uncommon in Singapore, this restaurant will satisfy your inner desire to dine alongside with Superheroes.

33 Tessensohn Road, Singapore 217656
Mon – Fri, 4pm – 12am, Sat 11am – 12am and Sun 11am – 11pm
Swee Choon Dim Sum Restaurant
I’m sure everyone know this popular dim sum restaurant with long queues every evening. They opened till 6am which make it a all time favorite supper spot!

191 Jalan Besar, Singapore 208882
Mon – Sun, 6pm – 6am (Closed on Tues)
126 Dim Sum 搵到食
126 dim sum is often compared to Swee Choon but each have it’s good points. 126 dim sum is known for its cheap and decent quality dim sum if looking for a fuss-free spot to satisfy your cravings.

1086 Serangoon Road, Singapore 328187
Mon – Sun, 5pm – 2am

After googling the travel distance online and know their exact location on the map, I decided to do my design according to the location on maps.

I did the building in illustrator with reference to the images. So here is my infographic on Boon Keng. Where it shows the name of restaurant, address and travel time from the MRT.

Feedback that I received:

The idea of introducing food is there but doesn’t bring out the point where Boon Keng is convenient.
Be consistent on the travel time, the time is based on by foot or by public transport?
Can’t tell what they are selling, be more specific. Maybe by adding the food that they are selling around them.
Who is my target audience?

Reflection

At first when I got Boon Keng, I was thinking what is there in Boon Keng? After visiting the site, I ask myself the same question, what is there in Boon Keng that make it special? Boon Keng is just like any other ordinary neighborhood. After asking some residents around, I guess the special thing about Boon Keng is the location. How convenient it is to travel around?

I have some difficulties doing this infographic because I can’t find a direction to work towards. The initial idea of just introducing Boon Keng doesn’t make Boon Keng a special place. Whatever Boon Keng have, it can be found in other neighborhood too. I seek some help from my friend and researching more on the area around Boon Keng, then I decided to do on the food.

Overall, this project was challenging and I’m glad I found a direction to work with and certainly there is a lot to improve for this infographic after receiving the feedback.

BOON KENG

History and Background

Boon Keng is named after Lim Boon Keng, a Chinese physician who came to Singapore in 1880s and contributed on promoting social and educational reforms for the local society since 1890s. Thus, Boon Keng Road and Boon Keng Mrt station are named in his honour.

Boon Keng is a sub-zone of Kallang, and is a residential estate served by 3 main roads: Boon Keng Road, Upper Boon Keng Road and Lorong 1 Geylang. Boon Keng is a less hyped neighborhood but the beauty of living there is that they get to enjoy lower home purchase and rental prices. Boon Keng is also near to popular area like the CBD and Orchard.

What are some amenities nearby Boon Keng?

Boon Keng Mrt Station

What I research online was a part of the Bendemeer Shopping Mall was demolished to make way for the construction of this station. The remaining portion of the building continues to be used for retail purposes today.

source: http://x3.sdimgs.com/simage/12688974130397.jpg

Kallang CC

Kallang CC is located near Boon Keng MRT station. Designed as an ‘open concept’ Cc to make residents feel more welcome. Kallang CC is knowed for being the only CC collaborate with ArkHub to attract youth through Chinese pop music. They have other facilities like table tennis room and badminton court.

source: https://pa.gov.sg/PA-Corp/images/centre/09083105343082863.jpg

Address: 45 Boon Keng Road, 339771
Phone: 6298 4582, 6298 9038

Bendemeer Market & Food Centre

It is located along Bendemeer Road, you can find a wide variety of food and snacks there.

source: http://sg2-cdn.pgimgs.com/listing/19482947/UPHO.61882930.V550.jpg

Address: 29 Bendemeer Road, 330029
(8 mins walk from Boon Keng MRT)

Bendemeer Shopping Mall

Two parallel blocks of shop houses which have been modernized into a shopping more by upgrading its infrastructure, such as building a roof in between the two blocks to keep out the sun and rain. The whole estate is generally old and there is no big brands there but just a few small business going on.

source: https://s3-media2.fl.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/FRhcMDUQWb8X5vddZm0hng/ls.jpg

Address: 25 Bendemeer Road, 330025
(3 mins walk from Boon Keng MRT)

Boon Keng Ville

Located in Upper Boon Keng Road. The neighborhood centre consists of 34 shops, in traditional setting, selling a wide range of goods and services. The market and food centre is a centre of attraction as it has a good range of halal food to serve Muslim or Non-Muslim residents.

However, it is not very near to Boon Keng MRT but nearer to Kallang MRT.

source: http://www.where2shop.sg/fi10/fi10297p.nsf/ImageView/KALLANG_BKV1A/$file/ka-bkv1a.jpg
source: http://www.where2shop.sg/fi10/fi10297p.nsf/ImageView/KALLANG_KB1E/$file/ka-kb1e.jpg

Address: Blk 11 – 18 Upper Boon Keng Road
(10 mins walk from Kallang MRT)

I didn’t manage to visit the site this week but will be heading down soon to check out the place and know more about the culture there.

Visiting the site (1)

When I first reach, I went to get lunch at Bendemeer Market and Food Centre. There wasn’t much store that was open but there was this long queue at the Chicken Rice store, thus I went and try the food there. I can say that the chicken rice is pretty good.

After lunch, I walked to the Bendemeer Mall. It was quite a normal place, nothing much going on around that area. Just like what I search online, its just old shop houses, no big brands and generally old.

I walked to the HDB area just beside the food centre. The exterior of the building looks new but when I walked under the block, I realize it look quite old and run down inside.

And it started raining ): Thus, I left that area and went back another day.

Visiting the site (2)

Central Sikh Temple is located 4mins walk away from Boon Keng MRT. There is like a contrast from the front and back, where the back of the building is more modernized.

I continued walking down towards Serangoon Road, where are the older shop houses are around also. It was a Sunday, thus a lot of shops are not open. The food around that area is still open.

I did asked a few people who stay there, and what they told me was that they love staying in this area is because of its location. It is easily accessible to other place especially the food within there, like Swee Choon and Hungry Hero Cafe.

What is Ethnography and participant-observation?

The term ethnography has come to be equated with virtually any qualitative research project where the intent is to provide a detailed, in-depth description of everyday life and practice.

Ethnographers generate understanding of culture through representation of what we call an emic perspective or what might be describe as the “insider’s point of view.”

Participant observation is long term engagement in the field setting or place where the ethnography takes place. This is perhaps the primary source of ethnographic data. To develop an understanding of what it is like to live in a setting, the researcher must 1. become a participant in the life of the setting while also 2. maintaining the stance of an observer (someone who can describes the experince with a measure of what we might call detachment).

Check out this website to find out more.

What are some ways collecting data?

Qualitative and Quantitative Data

Qualitative Data: gathers information that is not in numerical form.

Primarily exploratory research. Used to gain an understanding of underlying reasons, opinions and motivations. It provides insights into the problem or helps to develop ideas or hypotheses for potential quantitative research.

Some methods are group discussion, individual interviews and participation/observation.

Quantitative Data: gathers data in numerical forms.

Which can be put into categories, or in rank order, or measured in units of measurement. Used to quantify the problem by way of generating numerical data or data that can be transformed into usable statistics. It is used to generalize results from a larger sample population.

Some methods are online surveys, paper surveys, mobile surveys and kiosk surveys, face to face interviews, telephone interviews, longitudinal studies, website interceptors, online polls and systematic observations.

Primary and Secondary sources

Primary sources: a document or object that was written by someone who experienced or witnessed the event first hand.

What is a primary source?
– birth certificates
– photographs
– audio/video recordings
– diaries
– letters
– journals
– manuscripts
– interviews
– newspaper or magazine articles

Secondary sources: second hand accounts, and analyses of events created by someone who did not witnessed the event but may hae read or heard about it.

What is a secondary sources?
– books or articles written on a topic
– artworks depicting an event
– letters or diaries recounting a version of events told to the author by another source.

Infographics

Infographics are visual presentations of information that use the elements of design to display content.

Infographics express complex messages to viewers in a way that enhances their comprehension. Images are often an extension of the content of a written article, but infographics convey a self-contained message or principle.

If a road sign has too much information on it, then it is difficult to read. Infographics compress and display this information in a visually pleasing way so that drivers don’t miss the message.

Infographics communicate complex data quickly and clearly, and they are considered to be effective worldwide.