Singapore Conference Hall
Encyclopedia
Central business district
A central business district is the commercial and often geographic heart of a city. In North America this part of a city is commonly referred to as "downtown" or "city center"...
of Shenton Way
Shenton Way
Shenton Way is a major trunk road in Singapore's central business district, most known for the commercial skyscrapers flanking both sides of the road. The Road is a one way street which starts at the junction of Cross Street, Central Boulevard and Raffles Quay and ends at Keppel Road...
in Downtown Core
Downtown Core
The Downtown Core is a 266-hectare urban planning area in the south of the city-state of Singapore. The Downtown Core surrounds the mouth of the Singapore River and southeastern portion of its watershed, and is part of the Central Area, Singapore's central business district...
of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. The first building to be constructed along Shenton Way, it was a place for conferences and exhibition
Trade fair
A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities...
s in the 1960s and 1970s. Today, it is now refurbished and modernised into a concert hall where the building is home to the Singapore Chinese Orchestra
Singapore Chinese Orchestra
The Singapore Chinese Orchestra is Singapore's only professional Chinese orchestra. It has been located at the Singapore Conference Hall since 2001 after the revamp of the building. Its music director Tsung Yeh, leads the 70 member orchestra. It runs several community outreach programmes as well...
since 2001. Completed in 1965 at a cost of S$
Singapore dollar
The Singapore dollar or Dollar is the official currency of Singapore. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively S$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...
4 million at that time, it was an example of the nation's urban architecture during that. The building is situated on a three acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
site at the junction of Shenton Way
Shenton Way
Shenton Way is a major trunk road in Singapore's central business district, most known for the commercial skyscrapers flanking both sides of the road. The Road is a one way street which starts at the junction of Cross Street, Central Boulevard and Raffles Quay and ends at Keppel Road...
and Maxwell Road.
Architecture
The Singapore Conference Hall design was selected from a nation-wide open competition in 1961 and is a design of Singapore's urban architecture in the 1960s. The original architecture was mainly used concreteConcrete
Concrete is a composite construction material, composed of cement and other cementitious materials such as fly ash and slag cement, aggregate , water and chemical admixtures.The word concrete comes from the Latin word...
and glass
Glass
Glass is an amorphous solid material. Glasses are typically brittle and optically transparent.The most familiar type of glass, used for centuries in windows and drinking vessels, is soda-lime glass, composed of about 75% silica plus Na2O, CaO, and several minor additives...
in its facade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
. It has a large butterfly roof and in the past the roof and terrace have vertical sunscreen
Sunscreen
Sunblock is a lotion, spray, gel or other topical product that absorbs or reflects some of the sun's ultraviolet radiation on the skin exposed to sunlight and thus helps protect against sunburn...
s to provide shade for the interior. The concourse on the first level was conceived as a large space for programmes and from which visitors could find their way to the upper floors. Currently, it is used as a concourse
Concourse
A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space.-Examples:Examples of concourses include:* Meeting halls* Universities* Railway stations...
as well as a reception
Lobby (room)
A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....
area for the Singapore Chinese Orchestra. The area can be used for exhibition
Trade fair
A trade fair is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest products, service, study activities of rivals and examine recent market trends and opportunities...
s, reception
Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, or recreation. A party will typically feature food and beverages, and often music and dancing as well....
s, performance
Performance
A performance, in performing arts, generally comprises an event in which a performer or group of performers behave in a particular way for another group of people, the audience. Choral music and ballet are examples. Usually the performers participate in rehearsals beforehand. Afterwards audience...
s and conferences. The area was originally designed as a naturally ventilated space. The trade congress rooms were located on the third to fifth floors of the building. The building was designed by Malayan Architects Co-Partnership and was completed by Architects Team 3. The five storey building has no basement
Basement
__FORCETOC__A basement is one or more floors of a building that are either completely or partially below the ground floor. Basements are typically used as a utility space for a building where such items as the furnace, water heater, breaker panel or fuse box, car park, and air-conditioning system...
s and has an outdoor car park.
Future
There are plans to gazette the building into a national monumentNational Monuments of Singapore
National Monuments of Singapore are buildings and structures in Singapore that have been designated by the Preservation of Monuments Board as being of special historic, traditional, archaeological, architectural or artistic value....
soon, with some members of the public submitting a letter to the Preservation of Monuments Board for a gazetting of the monument. If it is gazetted as a national monument, the building will be redesigned to its near-original form.