Singapore Arts Museum

Walking across the Padang from the Esplanade, visitors will witness a new synthesis of the two important civic buildings of Singapore. Bonded sensitively by an alien-like yet familiar looking structure, the new National Art Gallery serves to be a new powerful beacon in the cultural scene of the region. The huge grand entrance opens up the richness of Southeast Asia arts to the visitors and the new architecture intervention reflecting a respect for the Southeast Asia’s tradition while at the same time welcoming the future. The Singapore National Art Gallery is seen to encourage the public throughout Singapore and beyond - to value and enjoy its art as well as utilizing the space to create a dynamic cultural scene within the Civic Centre. The choice of utilizing two very significant buildings that witnessed much important history of Singapore growth is a very challenging task. We see our design as a series of interventions to discover the possibilities for the reuse and re-adaptation of the two Civic buildings. The scheme is approached with the concept of juxtaposition where east meets west, old meets new. From the cultural to social to psychological perspective, Singapore has gained a unique position in the world to progress from a fishing village to a British colony to the current economic powerhouse of Asia - all within a short span of two hundred years. To celebrate this remarkable progress, it is very much our intention to utilize the above concept and proposed a scheme which harnesses the advance construction technologies from the west while emphasizing the use of local materials and craftsmanship for the architecture. Our conceptual principles are derived from commonly found regional materials and crafts such as sarong, rattan furniture, timber crafts and batik to generate the new architecture for the National Art Gallery Singapore.