-By Celia Ying, Photography courtesy of the National Museum of Singapore and W Architects

Originally built by Col. Sir H.E. Mc Callum as the former Raffles Library and Museum in 1887, the elegant neoclassical National Museum building in Singapore has undergone a three-year redevelopment, involving 18 consultant teams throughout its painstaking restoration and design process. Joined by a new Modernist extension of glass and metal, the National Museum of Singapore prides itself on introducing cutting-edge and varied methods of presenting history to redefine the conventional museum experience.

The $132.6-million revamp includes a new annex built behind the original building, with its new wing partially constructed on ground hollowed out from nearby Fort Canning Hill. Together, the original and new buildings total 18,375 sq. m. and make up Singapore's largest and most modern museum with world-class standards and facilities, including a 247-seat auditorium, a 10,000-sq.-m. exhibition gallery space, resource center, and public sculpture garden, as well as food service and retail outlets.

"The Museum's new look reflects our new philosophy," says National Museum of Singapore board chairman, associate professor Tan Tai Yong. "With the opening of exciting food and beverage outlets and new spaces for corporate events and functions, we are engaging the community in more interesting ways. We hope to bring in people who would otherwise not visit because of their pre-conceived notions of museums as being boring. Also, by infusing these elements, we aim to make museum-visiting a part of people's lifestyles."

The original National Museum designed in Neo-Palladian and Renaissance style consists of two rectangular parallel blocks with a dome at the front of the building. To recapture the beauty of the rotunda dome, all 50 pieces of stained glass in Victorian patterns were removed and restored. A new reinforcement system as well as the joints and lead work were also rectified. Other delicate features such as elegant wrought iron and plaster works, zinc roof tiles, and original timber and brick work, were all lovingly restored by local and international craftsmen to reinstate the 120-year-old building's former glory. And while everything inside the old building was kept and thoughtfully restored, on the exterior its timber doors and windows were all painted in silver, giving people a hint of the new extension and the new attitude of the museum.

Apart from the tedious restoration work, another focus of this revamp project was the modern counterpart, designed by W Architects. The neoclassical old building is juxtaposed by a new, glass-clad extension, which, according to the architect, is an "urban corridor" in its site. "The approach of combining the contemporary building and the historical building is nothing new," admits Mok Wei Wei, the design director of W Architects. "The new extension doesn't try to mimic the old. We wanted the new extension to distinctly express the spatial characteristics and materials of the 21st century."

Since the Urban Redevelopment Authority's guidelines dictated that the new extension could not be higher than the dome, the structure was designed so that the old building will always be the most powerful image of the museum. And although its design is rather low-key, it still creates lots of stunning spaces inside. For example, the Glass Passage, one of the world's largest outdoor, self-supporting glass structures, offers visitors a celebrated experience as they transit from old space to new. Here the architect has removed a part of the old tile roof and replaced it with a new frameless glass roof, allowing everyone to appreciate the exterior façade of the historic dome from within the museum walls. And it is in this Glass Passage that the old and new materials really meet. "In this space, the bottom part is the neoclassical façade, but at the top it is a glass roof. So in this part the new and old really engage each other," Mok explains.

Also bringing together old and new materials is the Canyon and Concourse, where the floor extends to the wall, forming a dialogue with the glass. "This solid grey concrete floor consists of lightness and heaviness," remarks Mok. "Besides solidity and transparency, it's also about the old building being decorated with all the old classical ornamental elements that makes it very unique to this historical architecture."

Finally, the Glass Rotunda, designed as a modern interpretation of the old rotunda dome, serves as the main entrance of the History Gallery. Here a beautiful artwork named the "Building Remembers/Remembering the Building" created by a Singaporean artist Matthew Ngui is installed as part of the architecture. By day, 360 degrees of projected images surround visitors when they are within the interior of the smaller drum. At night, the Glass Rotunda transforms into a lantern, with images appearing on the "skin" of the inner drum, also visible on the exterior façade, illuminating the city skylight.

The Museum is now more than twice its original size and promises to bring compelling contents to its new gallery spaces. It is the hope of the Museum that visitors will leave their old impressions and prejudices at the door and step into a new interpretation of history. "Museums are no longer merely repositions of art and artifacts. History doesn't have to come in old, dusty photo frames or as manuscripts that are yellow and brittle with age," says Michael Koh, chief executive officer of the National Heritage Board. "The National Museum presents history in a lively way that will stimulate new ways of understanding our rich culture and identity."

who
Project: National Museum of Singapore. Client: National Heritage Board. Architect, structural consultant, M&E consultant: CPG Consultants. Design consultant: W Architects. Project manager: PM Link. Restoration architect: Architectural Restoration Consultants. FaÁade consultant: Connell Wagner. Lighting consultant: Lighting Planners Associates. Acoustics consultant: CCW Associates. Landscape: ICN Design International. Signage: Duet Design. Exhibition design: GSM Design Exhibits. Main contractor: Sato Kogyo.

what
Paint: ICM. Flooring: Mcare Lab, Wood Doctor, Timberplus Interiors, Spec Building Products, Earth Arts, Concrete Grinding. Ceiling: FineBuild Systems. Carpet: Image Trading, Goodrich Global. Doors: Flamelite, Hang Hong Contractor SIAC, Slide in& Hide System. Shelving/cabinetry: Shanghai Chong Kee Furniture & Construction. M&E: BNF Engineering . FaÁade Glass: Wah Heng Glass Holding. Aluminium works: Positive Engineering. Landscape: Tropical Environment. Signage: Crimsign Graphics. Restoration: Macus J. Fox, SMF Contract Services, The Stained Glass & Crafts Shoppe.

where
Location: Singapore. Total floor area: 18,375 sq. m. Cost: $132.6 million ($80m for building & $52.6m for exhibition).