Colonial heritage
Faced with the almost blank page that was Singapore on his arrival, Sir Stamford Raffles saw an opportunity to sketch out the contours of an ideal city. In the purest English tradition, he planned the city's different districts according to their functions. The focal point of this ideal city is Civic Square, inspired by the great Malay Padang, a vast esplanade intended for parades and demonstrations of power. It was around this organizing center that the great buildings of the colonial administration were erected. At the same time, Raffles introduced standards designed to give the city coherence and uniformity. Buildings in the urban zone were to be constructed of masonry and arranged in continuous order along straight streets intersecting at right angles. Raffles also lays down standards for the width of lanes, the number of buildings per block, and the height and width of buildings. On the street side, buildings are required to have a permanently open, covered passageway in the form of arcades to protect them from the sun and monsoon rains. This passage is known as Five Foot Way.
The great architect of the time was George Drumgold Coleman, who popularized the Neoclassical and Neo-Palladian styles, borrowing from the canons of antiquity their monumentality, their quest for harmony and symmetry, and their art of colonnaded decoration. The most famous representatives of this style are City Hall and the Supreme Court, now united by a veil of glass and steel designed by Jean-François Milou and housing the National Gallery. Alongside this classicism, the eclecticism so fashionable during the Victorian era was also employed, as evidenced by the Armenian Church, christened Saint-Grégoire-de-l'Illuminateur, or the building housing the National Museum of Singapore, all domes and rich ornamentation. On the residential front, the colonial period saw the emergence of grand mansions that resembled ancient palaces (but borrowed a few elements from Asian cultures, such as pagoda roofs), like the impressive Beaulieu House or the most legendary of colonial buildings, the Raffles Hotel, with its sublime marble colonnades, teak veranda and majestic staircases.
Singapore also boasts a number of elegant bungalows. These take their name from the bangala, the Bengalese hut that inspired the English. Raised structures on masonry foundations (usually brick or cement walls covered with lime), projecting porches with classical arches and columns, high ceilings, wide verandas, hipped roofs, fine wooden staircases and cast-iron balustrades, décor and furnishings in marble, ceramics and precious woods... these are the characteristics of these bungalows such are the characteristics of these bungalows, the most famous of which are known as "black and white" because of their whitewashed walls, against which dark wood or black-painted elements stand out. At the beginning of the 20th century, colonial architecture moved away from historicist trends and towards the modernity of Art Deco, with its pared-down, simple geometric volumes. This was particularly the case in commercial and industrial architecture (Ford Factory, Kallong Airport...) With their fin-like canopies providing protection from the sun, and their rounded masts and balconies, the silhouettes of many buildings are reminiscent of ships!
Multicultural jewels
Among the great cultures that have shaped the face of Singapore is the Malay culture. The city has preserved some interesting examples of traditional houses. Kampong are village houses built on stilts. Their framework is made of hardwood posts and beams. The wall panels are made of woven bamboo, and the steeply pitched roof is made of palm thatch. The facades can be adorned with wooden panels carved in elegant organic patterns. Kelongs are offshore constructions used mainly by fishermen. They are unique in that no nails are used, only rattan to connect the various elements of the wooden structure. Some are connected to land by footbridges, while others can be completely floating. The island of Pulau Ubin is still home to some fine examples of this early architecture. Today, the Malay influence can be seen above all in the presence of superb mosques, the oldest of which, Masjid Sultan, the Great Mosque of the Sultan, impresses with its sumptuous golden dome and walls covered with mosaic tiles and calligraphic inscriptions. The Indian workers who helped build the city's first roads and infrastructure, mainly from South India, settled in various districts, including Little India, and brought a whirlwind of color to the city. Intricate carvings, hand-painted motifs, finely chiselled decoration, shimmering colors... Indian workers and craftsmen are masters of decorative architecture, as evidenced by the superb Sri Mariamman Temple. See its protective enclosure, from which emerges a gopura (gate-tower) with astonishing polychrome figures. Chinatown bears the imprint of the highly influential Chinese culture and its ancestral science of Feng-Shui. The wooden steps you have to climb before entering a house are there to protect you from creeping spirits, while the screen panels at the entrances, forming a kind of chicane, are there to block the path of spirits advancing in a straight line. And the mirrors placed on the door and window frames are there to reflect the spirit's own image and scare it away! Elegant Taoist temples, such as the Thian Hock Keng Temple with its protective dragons on the roof peak, and sumptuous Buddhist temples with stupas (funerary monuments) and gilded Buddha statues, are also among the superb witnesses to Chinese culture. Just like the shophouses, these small buildings consisting of a commercial first floor and a residential upper floor. Since the English administration taxed buildings according to their width, shopkeepers opted for narrow facades (3 to 5 m), which they compensated with lengths of up to 60 m! These shophouses feature arcades on the facade, the famous Five Foot Way, and are organized around one or more courtyards. The first shophouses were rather simple, built from local materials. Gradually, however, their style became more elaborate, particularly under the impetus of the Peranakan community. Meaning "those who were born here", the term Peranakan refers to the community formed by the descendants of the first Chinese immigrants who married Malay women, also known as Baba Nyonya. Rich and prosperous, this trading community created its own architectural style, which can be summed up as follows: grand scale, sumptuous decor. Often referred to as Sino-Malay Baroque, this style blends Chinese, Malay and Western influences in an astonishing decorative abundance. Painted or sculpted friezes under Malay-inspired wooden eaves; ceramic tiles with geometric or floral motifs and Chinese-inspired glazed tiles; pilasters and antique columns adorned with decorative plasterwork are among the great attributes of this style. The Peranakan Museum, housed in the superb Baba House, and the beautiful pastel-coloured shophouses on Koon Seng Road and Emerald Road are among the finest examples of this Sino-Malay culture. In the early 20th century, some even incorporated Art Deco elements, such as curves and zigzag motifs. Bukit Pasoh Road is a fine example of this.
The birth of multi-family housing
At the turn of the twentieth century, Singapore experienced very strong urban and demographic growth. New buildings inspired by shophouses were constructed to accommodate up to 200 residents, but the constant influx of people meant that they were subdivided into tiny dwellings where the inhabitants crammed together in extremely unsanitary conditions. In the 1920s, to alleviate this problem, the colonial administration created the Architect Ordinance and the Singapore Improvment Trust, which set new standards of hygiene and comfort. But this was not enough to curb the problem, and in 1947 Singapore was even dubbed "the biggest slum in Southeast Asia". To remedy the situation, the colonial administration launched the first major urbanization campaigns, creating large modernist housing estates and, above all, new satellite towns like Queenstown. But it was not until the 1960s, under the impetus of Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew, that housing policy took off again. The Housing Development Board was responsible for implementing this urban and social policy. In the midst of the forests, large concrete housing estates were built to house people whose traditional dwellings had been demolished as unsanitary, while in the heart of the city, large social housing blocks were built to integrate the different cultures of the city-state. To this end, the HDB has set up so-called "void decks", large open spaces built at the foot of the buildings via a system of columns supporting the edifice. A place for exchanges between cultures, an oasis of shade and coolness, these spaces perfectly illustrate Singapore's multicultural atmosphere. Symbolizing the aspirations and ambitions of a newly independent nation, these grand ensembles, which have alternated between international style, brutalism and tropical modernism better suited to the climate, are now under threat. Under the pressure of speculation and the constant transformation of the city, many have already been destroyed. But today, many voices are speaking out against the destruction of this heritage. A commitment that has seen the famous Golden Mile Complex saved from destruction. The Tiong Bahru district is also a perfect example of the preservation of this social architecture.
Contemporary effervescence
Because of its small size, Singapore very quickly became the city of skyscrapers, with giants of concrete, glass and steel springing up everywhere... even though the maximum permitted height was for a long time limited to 280 m to allow planes to fly over the city without difficulty! It wasn't long before some of the world's greatest architects and designers vied with each other to redesign the face of the city. Ieoh Ming Pei created astonishing hotel and residential towers, such as the Gateway, with its two 150 m-high, trapezoidal buildings, lending finesse and elegance to the whole. Architect Kenzo Tange designed the buildings of numerous banks in the Central Business District, including One Raffles Place, a gigantic glass monolith. With its two glass domes covered by thousands of triangular aluminum canopies, the Esplanade Theatre has been nicknamed "the Durian", its silhouette resembling the fruit that is so popular in Asia. Another astonishing structure is theArtscience Museum, shaped like a lotus with geometrically curved petals. But it is undoubtedly architect Moshe Safdie who has endowed Singapore with its most fascinating buildings. He is responsible for the Sky Habitat residential complex, comprising 2 towers linked by 3 bridges, the highest of which houses... a swimming pool! But that's nothing compared to his Marina Bay Sands and Sky Park. This luxury hotel is made up of 3 55-storey towers, on top of which the architect has built a kind of ship measuring over 1 hectare (capable of holding more than 3 Airbus A380s!), including a 150 m-long infinity pool. Norman Foster, meanwhile, set up his Singapore studios in an elegantly refurbished shophouse. His agency is responsible for the building of the new Supreme Court, with its impressive round hall supported by the rest of the building. Foster is also responsible for the superb Capella Resort on Sentosa Island. A former British military complex, this hotel features gentle curves and elegant canopies sheltering lush nature. The same curves can be found in Zaha Hadid's designs for Leedon, a complex of 7 curved towers with floors designed like the petals of a flower. The agency also recently unveiled plans for Singapore's future Science Centre, due to open in 2027, whose vegetated volumes appear to float above the lake. For many years now, Singapore has been committed to an environmental policy that is reflected in its slogan: "the city in a garden"! The great symbols of this sustainable policy are, of course, the Gardens by the Bay, futuristic botanical gardens created on land reclaimed from the sea through reclamation, where you can admire Super Trees, immense steel structures up to 50 m high, where astonishing climbing plants grow, and monumental glass domes serving as tropical greenhouses. Sublime steel and wood platforms perched hundreds of metres high, the Southern Ridges give the impression of flying above the city and its omnipresent nature (every inhabitant is less than 400 m from a green space!). The Parkroyal Collection Pickering, designed by the WoHa agency and featuring towers on stilts linked by green balconies, aims to combine sustainability and high urban density; the Oasia Hotel Downtown, with its hanging gardens and vegetated framework; Changi airport and its Jewel complex, which houses a tropical garden that looks like a cathedral of greenery; or the astonishing CapitaSpring by the BIG agency, a 280 m-high oasis overlooked by a sky garden.. here are just a few examples of sustainable projects. And there's more to come! The city recently launched the Singapore Green Plan 2030, which aims to triple the number of kilometers of bicycle paths, increase the area of parks by 50%, quadruple the development of solar energy and halve greenhouse gas emissions... these are just some of the challenges facing architects. The famous SOM agency will attempt to meet these challenges with its "8 Shenton Way" skyscraper, whose 305 m and 10,000m2 of green space are now coming out of the ground!
