Published on: November 17, 2009

National Museum of Singapore by Lighting Planners Associates. The project focuses on emphasizing with light the beauty of architecture that originates in the year of 1887.

More info from LPA:

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The Singapore History Museum was first built in 1887, and through a conservation renewal project, reopened as the National Museum of Singapore. The old building was renovated and a new glass structure built over the rare block. The buildings are both the front and rear of one complete structure, but with contrasting expressions. Playing off the modern airiness of the new glass structure and the classic heaviness of the old stone building, impressive night façades were created for each building with different light and methods.

In order to artistically highlight the distinctive relief work on the façade of the old building, sensitive mounting detail was considered very carefully. To create a foundation for the facade design, flat floodlights with compact fluorescent lamps cast a natural gradation of light along the bottom of the building. Above, xenon strip light was finely mounted into the motif, windows, columns, cornice, and pediments, to create shadowing and express the beauty and stateliness of neoclassical architecture. To accommodate for subtle differences in color temperate between the different light sources, the 2700 K compact fluorescent lights were also fitted with filters. Sparse, but lavish color lighting in the central entrance and the stained glass dome ceiling inside the renovated rotunda create a festive accent and novelty in the middle of this historic atmosphere.

Meanwhile in the rear, the new building acts as a brand-new glass case enclosing the wall washed façade of the old building.

The glass structure contains the entrance atrium, rich in natural sunlight and its daily minute-by-minute changes. At night strategically focused spotlights create sharpness with a minimum amount of light necessary to dramatically bring the old façade and luminous ticketing box out of the darkness.

The old building façade is lightly wall washed from above by compact metal halide lamps and blue LED accent lights are lined along the top. The old and new buildings are separated by ‘The Canyon’, a long, narrow void 25 meters high starting at the 2nd basement floor. The lighting helps to fuse the old and new of this space and at the end of the day daylight reaches the canyon bottom and fills the space with light.

‘The Glass Passage,’ is an 11-meter tall connective space penetrating both buildings. A belt of light illuminates the perimeter of this glass corridor with the lit up rotunda visible in the distance through the plate-glass ceiling.

‘The Inner Drum’ is a cylinder-shaped multipurpose space. Blue LED`s are mounted in the double-skin façade, acting as another connective item between the old and new.

Inside, low, linear cove lighting leads visitors into the drum.

Completely opposite from the daytime atmosphere, at night cove lighting softly glows through the porous folded-plate façade of the Children Discovery Gallery.

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Note of the editor:

Please note the copyright of these images is retained by Lighting Planners Associates and the photographers (for photo No6)  Albert Lim and (other photos) Toshio Kaneko.  Use of those images is subject to them being used for this article only. Publication of any image in any form or fashion must include a credit for both Lighting Planners Associates and the photographers.