National Gallery Singapore Architecture: Old Into New

Two of Singapore’s most important civic buildings stand side by side on the edge of the Padang: the former City Hall and the former Supreme Court. Since November 2015 they have operated as a single institution, National Gallery Singapore. National Gallery Singapore architecture is, in effect, the story of how two monumental classical buildings, designed a decade apart for entirely different purposes, were joined into one museum without losing what made each of them significant.

This article looks at the two original buildings, the design competition and the strategy that won it, the key new elements, the canopy, the bridges and the basement concourse, and the conservation approach behind them. It also considers the structural and technical challenges that a conversion of this kind involves.

The former City Hall

The Municipal Building, as City Hall was originally known, was designed by Alexander Gordon, whose plans were approved in 1926. It was completed and declared open in July 1929. The building is four storeys high, arranged symmetrically around two open courtyards, with a monumental front of eighteen Corinthian columns facing the Padang. It was renamed City Hall in 1951.

Few buildings in Singapore carry more history. On 12 September 1945, the Japanese surrender in Singapore was formally accepted there by Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten. In 1959, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew and his Cabinet were sworn in at City Hall, and Yusof Ishak was inaugurated there as Singapore’s first head of state. The building’s grand steps facing the Padang have been the stage for national events ever since.

The former Supreme Court

Next door, the Supreme Court was designed by Frank Dorrington Ward, chief architect of the Public Works Department. The foundation stone was laid in 1937 and the building opened on 3 August 1939. It is often described as the last neoclassical building constructed in Singapore. Its plan is organised as four blocks around a central rotunda, crowned by a copper dome, which originally housed the court’s circular law library. The pediment and frieze carry sculpted allegorical and historical scenes.

Ward designed the Supreme Court to match City Hall’s height and scale, so the two buildings read together as a civic ensemble facing the Padang. Both were gazetted as national monuments in 1992. The classical vocabulary they share is explored in our article on neoclassical architecture.

The design competition

After the courts moved to the new Supreme Court building and the government offices left City Hall, the two monuments were set aside for a national art museum. An international design competition attracted 111 entries from 29 countries. The winning scheme, announced in 2008, was by the Paris-based studioMilou, working in Singapore in collaboration with CPG Consultants. A joint venture of Takenaka Corporation and Singapore Piling was appointed as main contractor in 2010.

The winning idea was restrained. Rather than adding a large new building, the scheme left the two monuments largely intact as objects and used a series of light, carefully placed interventions to connect them and make them work as a museum: a canopy over the space between them, bridges linking them, and a new basement level beneath.

Key elements of National Gallery Singapore architecture

The canopy and the Padang Atrium

The most visible new element is the roof canopy, which spans the space between the two buildings and integrates them at roof level. Made of glass and a filigree screen of metal, and inspired by tropical foliage, it filters sunlight into the atrium below while providing shade. It is supported by slender, tree-like columns, so the load of the roof reaches the ground without bearing on the historic structures. The space it shelters, between the two buildings, became the Padang Atrium, a public, light-filled room that serves as the gallery’s main gathering space.

The link bridges

The two buildings are joined by glass-and-aluminium link bridges, the first of which was installed in 2014. They were designed to be reversible, meaning they could be removed in future without damaging the historic buildings. This reflects a key principle of conservation: new work should be distinguishable from the old and should not compromise its future.

The basement concourse

At basement level, the two monuments are joined by a new concourse that serves as the gallery’s entrance level. The architects have described the foundations as one of the project’s greatest technical challenges: City Hall sits on shallow foundations over soft marine clay, while the Supreme Court is carried on deep foundations reaching stiffer ground some twenty metres below. Building new underground space beside structures founded so differently requires careful support of excavation and close monitoring of movement, since even small settlements can crack old masonry and plaster. Archaeological excavations carried out on the site in 2009 also uncovered artefacts dating from the fourteenth to the nineteenth centuries.

The rotunda

Beneath the Supreme Court’s copper dome, the former law library, with its circular chamber, encircling balcony and oculus, was restored and retained as one of the building’s most atmospheric spaces.

The conservation approach

The project adopted a largely non-invasive approach. Original murals, timber courtroom fittings and façade details were retained, and surfaces were cleaned and repaired rather than replaced. Courtrooms and council chambers were preserved in their historic form, so visitors experience the buildings’ original character as well as the art they contain. Restoration of the Supreme Court’s tympanum began in 2012.

This philosophy, keeping the historic fabric legible and making new interventions light and reversible, is at the heart of good adaptive reuse architecture. It contrasts with approaches that retain only a façade and rebuild behind it.

The engineering behind the transformation

Converting buildings designed for offices and courtrooms into a modern museum creates structural and technical challenges that are invisible to visitors. Gallery floors must carry heavier loads from crowds, artworks and display systems than many of the original floors were designed for. Museum-grade environmental control requires extensive new mechanical services, which have to be routed through historic structures with limited space. Fire safety and accessibility requirements must be met without compromising heritage interiors.

Each of these requires careful assessment of the existing structure, often old reinforced concrete and masonry with limited original documentation, followed by targeted strengthening where necessary. The new canopy and bridges, supported independently, avoid loading the monuments. The result is a museum that functions to contemporary standards while the original buildings remain recognisably themselves. For context on how these buildings sit among the city’s other landmarks, see our guide to Singapore’s famous buildings, and for the period of architecture they represent, our article on colonial architecture.

Frequently asked questions

Who designed National Gallery Singapore?

The conversion of the former City Hall and Supreme Court into National Gallery Singapore was designed by studioMilou, the Paris-based practice that won the international design competition announced in 2008, in collaboration with CPG Consultants. The original buildings were designed by Alexander Gordon and Frank Dorrington Ward respectively.

When did National Gallery Singapore open?

National Gallery Singapore opened to the public in November 2015, after a long period of restoration and construction that followed the 2008 competition result and the appointment of the main contractor in 2010.

What is special about National Gallery Singapore architecture?

Its distinction lies in joining two monumental neoclassical buildings with light, reversible interventions, a filigree roof canopy on tree-like columns, link bridges and a new basement, while conserving the historic courtrooms, chambers and the domed rotunda library largely intact.

Are City Hall and the former Supreme Court national monuments?

Yes. Both buildings were gazetted as national monuments in 1992. City Hall was completed in 1929 and the Supreme Court in 1939, and together they formed the heart of Singapore’s civic district facing the Padang.

Considering the conversion or strengthening of a historic building? Talk to our consultancy or get in touch for careful, accountable structural advice.