Singapore (Marina Bay)

 

Marina Bay is an extension to Singapore’s Central Business District, on reclaimed land developed from 1969 to 1992. As a result of this land reclamation, the Singapore River empties into an artificial bay, which also gives its name to the surrounding area.

OUE Bayfront at 50 Collyer Quay was built in 2007-11 to a design by DP Architects. It replaced the Overseas Union House from 1971, which was an 8-storey office and car park building with shopping facilities. 

Marina Bay Financial Centre was designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox and built in two stages. The first two office towers and Marina Bay Residences were completed in 2010. The largely subterranean mall was also first opened at that time. The third office tower and Marina Bay Suites were officially completed in May 2013. The towers are between 192 and 245 metres.

Marina One was built to a design by Christoph Ingenhoven and completed in January 2018. The project consists of two office buildings and two residential units.

Singapore (Tanjong Pagar)

Tanjong Pagar is a district within the Downtown core of Singapore. The area is sometimes referred to as the second CBD, situated southwest of the traditional urban core around Raffles Place. The port area to the south is planned to be relocated by 2030, making it available for redevelopment into what has been named the Great Southern Waterfront. Not subject to the same height restrictions as around Raffles Place, Singapore’s tallest building was completed in Tanjong Pagar in 2016. 

Oasia Hotel Downtown was completed in December 2016, to a design by Singapore-based WOHA Architects. The 190-metre tower is clad in a red aluminium mesh to allow the integration of vines, plants and flowers. It includes four open-sides sky terraces that provide vistas and cross-ventilation. The design has been presented as a prototype for development in tropical urban environments. 

The Guoco Tower in Tanjong Pagar was completed in 2016 and was the tallest skyscraper in Singapore as of 2020, at 283.7 metres. Some sources give the height as 290 metres. Formerly known as Tanjong Pagar Centre, the tower was built to a design by architectural firm Skidmore, Owings and Merrill. Construction began in 2013.

Hotel de Salm

The Hotel de Salm was originally built in 1782-88 by architect Pierre Rousseau for the prince of Salm-Kyrburg. It has been the headquarters of the Legion of Honour since 1804. The current building is a replica of the original, which was destroyed in a fire during the Paris Commune in 1871. The complex had been expanded in 1866-70 and again in 1922-25. 

The entrance to the courtyard is a triumphal arch within a screen of Ionic columns. It is very similar to an unexecuted design by Marie-Joseph Peyre, which was presented in 1763 for the Hotel de Condé. The prince of Condé later moved to the Palais-Bourbon and his old residence was replaced with a theatre for the Comedie-Francaise. This theatre has been known since 1797 as Theatre de l'Odeon. 

Incidentally, the Scottish architect Robert Adam had previously used a screen of columns for the London Admiralty in 1759.

The courtyard is thought to be inspired by Jacques Gondoin's School of Surgery from 1769-74. The portico has six Corinthian columns that fronts a relatively bare wall. It is decorated above the door with a frieze of garlands and a relief by Jean Guillaume Moitte depicting the Roman Festival of Pales, or Parilia.  

The former garden front overlooks the river and features a domed rotunda, capped with statues of Olympian gods and goddesses by Jean Guillaume Moitte. Rousseau also hired his brother-in-law Philippe-Laurent Roland, who designed the low relief on the pavilions of the entrance front on Rue de Lille. Both sculptors were later involved in the decoration of the Lemercier wing of the Louvre courtyard during the reign of Napoleon. The oval salon and planning of the rooms have been compared to the Hotel Thelusson by Claude-Nicolas Ledoux.

Colonial Architecture in Southeast Asia

The first Europeans to arrive to southeast Asia were the Portuguese. In 1511, they captured Malacca, an important trade centre in the region, and built a a fortress to protect against a Malay counter-attack. 

The Porta de Santiago is the only surviving remnant of this fortress, which became known as A Famosa, or Fortaleza Velha. This was one of four gates to the fortified enclosure.

The inscription Anno 1670 and logo of the Dutch East India Company were added after the Dutch ended Portuguese rule in Malacca in 1641. The fort was demolished after the British took Malacca in 1795 but the gate was fortunately spared.

Before kicking the Portuguese out of Malacca, the Dutch had established a trading post on Java by the early 17th century, which in 1621 was named Batavia. A square and city hall is first recorded in 1627 but the present facade is from about 1707-1710. Some of its features are reminiscent of Paleis Op de Dam, which is now a royal palace but was originally built as the city hall of Amsterdam.

French missionaries and traders were active in Vietnam since the 17th century, and the French got involved in Vietnamese politics and built the Saigon citadel in 1790. But the French conquest of the area really starts in 1859 when Saigon was taken. Its old Central Post Office was

 built in 1886-1891 to a design by architect Alfred Foulhoux.

The National Museum of Singapore was opened as the Raffles Library and Museum in 1887. The museum was founded in 1849 and the collection was previously housed in the Singapore Institution, which is considered the oldest school in Singapore. It was briefly moved to the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, which then existed as the city hall. The new building was commissioned in 1882 and was designed by architect Henry McCallum, but was built to a revised and scaled-down version by JF McNair. A modern annexe by W Architects was added in 2004-06, featuring a glass-clad rotunda inspired by IM Pei.

The former Attorney-Generals Chambers, which is now part of the Parliament Building in Singapore, was originally built in the 1880s, though the current design dates from 1906. The first building on the site seems to have been completed in 1839, as an annex to Maxwell's House (also known as the former Parliament House), which is considered the oldest surviving building in Singapore