Not just for dining: The new Terrace offers common spaces, e-sports and more
After a two-and-a-half year wait, the Terrace (The Terrace @ COM3) reopened its doors on 23 August 2022, boasting exciting revamps to invigorate campus life. Located between the NUS School of Computing and NUS Business School, the canteen served the community for more than 35 years before closing on 11 May 2019 for renovations.
After undergoing 35 months of renovations, with unexpected delays brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, The Terrace @ COM3 now boasts a total seating capacity of 777. It was awarded the Green Mark Platinum certification by the Building and Construction Authority in 2020 for its design features, such as its two circular air wells that introduce natural daylight, among the building’s other elements that are aimed at enhancing health and encouraging physical activity.
“The Terrace @ COM3 offers a myriad of common spaces and facilities for the NUS community to enjoy. Stakeholders were engaged early on, in the brainstorming stage to give their valuable inputs on what they envision the space to be – with conducive spaces for collaboration and co-inspiring being one of the main requirements for the NUS School of Computing,” said Mr Koh Yan Leng, Vice President, University Campus Infrastructure.
“With this goal in mind, the design team got down to work and the end-result was a mix of furniture – for both big and small groups, within the canteen to not only serve its functional use but also introduce liveliness with the choice of vibrant colours,” he added.
The canteen also houses the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s first outlet in NUS, which serves halal-certified hand-crafted café beverages and pastries, along with food and dessert options such as the Dining Table, a halal concept restaurant from Neo Garden Catering, and frozen yoghurt store Smöoy.
Technology: A distinct feature of The Terrace @ COM3
A key emphasis of The Terrace @ COM3 is the use of technology to improve the dining experience for patrons and help increase the productivity of canteen staff.
One such feature is the NUSmart dining mobile application, which enables users to place their orders through their mobile devices from wherever they are. Alternatively, they may make their orders through the self-ordering kiosks stationed across the canteen. As of September 2022, the app and self-ordering kiosks have been successfully deployed at all NUS canteens (except for Central Square which will undergo renovation works in January 2023).
Slated in the pipeline is a debut of food delivery robots at The Terrace @ COM3. Fully integrated with the lifts, these robots will be able to deliver orders placed through the NUSmart dining mobile app to designated delivery points at basement 1 and level 2 of the building, when they become operational. There are also plans to deploy tray return robots (already in use at the Techno Edge) as well as pest control robots at The Terrace @ COM3 and the other NUS canteens in phases. The pest control robots use artificial intelligence to detect and eliminate mosquito hotspots.
Another cool feature at The Terrace @ COM3 is an e-sports panel, spanning 7 metres long and almost 4 metres high. The fixture rides on e-sports’ growing popularity and rapid adoption both locally and internationally. NUS e-sports enthusiasts can use the gaming pods to pit their skills and wits against each other and organise their own tournaments right on campus.
The rejuvenated Terrace @ COM3 is part of the University’s continued efforts to ensure a smart, safe and sustainable experience on campus for all. Through these improvements, NUS Campus Life aims to provide high quality infrastructure and services to the NUS family of students, faculty and staff, and other community members.
By University Campus Infrastructure (Campus Life)
