Paya Lebar Airbase: The Place To Be… But We Can't is an interactive narrative website exploring the history, lived experience, and imagined future of Paya Lebar Airbase (PLAB) — a high-security Singapore Air Force installation largely hidden from public view.

Built and coded entirely from scratch in HTML, CSS, and jQuery, this was one of my first self-directed web development projects. Without a design framework or established process, I moved directly from concept to code — learning through building. The experience of figuring out audio integration, multi-page navigation, and interactive elements hands-on shaped how I think about the relationship between design intent and technical execution.

The site asks a simple question: how do you experience a place you cannot enter? It unfolds across three chapters. Chapter 1 traces the airbase's history through archival material. Chapter 2 is an intimate first-person narration of life inside the base during National Service. Chapter 3 invites visitors to imagine what PLAB could become as the site undergoes its planned transformation into a new town.

The project is live at plabtheplacetobe.github.io — a fully deployed, publicly accessible website with real code. Looking back, there are clear UX limitations I would address today: no mobile responsiveness, inconsistent visual hierarchy, and an absence of clear user flow. These are the gaps that motivated me to pursue interaction design more rigorously — and the contrast between this early work and my later projects reflects that growth directly.

(Note: this web prototype is optimised for desktop browsers)