The city of Singapore was planned by Sir
Stamford Raffles in 1822, and his layout for the city, the
Raffles Plan of Singapore, largely survives to this day, even if the city has expanded greatly through the years. Raffles specified the area for government offices, various ethnic communities, religious buildings, commerce and education, as well as a
Botanic Garden. Raffles planned the city down to the size of the house, the widths of the streets, and the material to be used. Raffles' regulations for the city also has some influence over the architecture, and some of their effects may still be seen in the shop houses; for example it is stipulated that they should not be over 3 stories high, and needed to have an obligatory
five foot way. Raffles himself opted for a Malay style house made of wood and
atap (
Raffles House on
Bukit Larangan or Fort Canning Hill, once called Government Hill), other Europeans of the period however preferred European style buildings of brick and stucco. Singapore's most prominent architect in the early colonial era was
George Drumgoole Coleman, who was responsible for many of these early European style buildings, few of which survived. Those that did include the
old Parliament house and
Caldwell House at
CHIJMES. In the 19th century, two
hybrid building typologies evolved in Singapore. While their origins can be traced elsewhere, these building types underwent significant local adaptation and modification before spreading regionally. As a result, they are Singapore's earliest known architectural innovations and exports. These hybrid building typologies were the shophouse and the black and white bungalow.
Shophouse The old style shophouses are shops with one or more stories of living accommodation above it. These shophouses typically have a so-called
five foot way which is a covered walkway located in front of the shop doors, with the upper floors shielding the pedestrians from the elements. This is a result of the
Raffles Town Plan (1822) for Singapore with the stipulation that "all houses constructed of brick or tiles have a common type of front each having an arcade of a certain depth, open to all sides as a continuous and open passage on each side of the street".
Black and white bungalow The black and white bungalows were once the residences of the wealthy, colonial government officials or members of the British army. These buildings typically have whitewashed walls, and black painted wood or detailing.
Traditional places of worship Another prominent category of buildings in the colonial period were places of worship. As a multi-religious port-city, with migrants from all over the world, a variety of different immigrant communities lived and worked in Singapore. These groups often banded together to raise funds to erect their own places of worship, including a variety of syncretic Chinese temples, Hindu temples, Sikh temples, Jewish synagogues, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox Christian Churches as well as Sunni and Shia mosques. Apart from being devoted to the various sects and denominations within each religious tradition, these buildings were often built to serve ethnic groups and sub-groups. For examples, while most Muslims in Singapore were and are Malay, some mosques were built in the South Indian style to serve Tamil Muslims. Likewise, several churches were built in a distinctly Chinese style, serving ethnic Chinese congregations. Several of the oldest and most important places of worship in Singapore have been designated
National Monuments of Singapore, and they include the
Cathedral of the Good Shepherd,
Armenian Church,
St Andrew's Cathedral,
Thian Hock Keng Temple,
Lian Shan Shuang Lin Monastery,
Sultan Mosque,
Sri Mariamman Temple,
Jamae Mosque and
Telok Ayer Chinese Methodist Church, amongst others.
Civic and commercial buildings Another important group of historic buildings were those built by the colonial government. These were often built in one or another European architectural style, which was in fashion at the time, such as the
Palladian,
Renaissance, or
Neoclassical styles. Some of the more important buildings included the
Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall, the
Fullerton Building,
old Supreme Court Building,
City Hall, Singapore,
National Museum of Singapore,
old Parliament House,
Old Hill Street Police Station, Central Fire Station, old
Raffles Institution buildings,
Changi Prison, old NCO club and numerous other schools, post offices, military camps and police stations around the island. Major commercial buildings, often erected by European businesses as well as mission schools and other civic groups, also adopted these styles, such as the
Raffles Hotel, Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus (now
CHIJMES), old St Joseph's Institution and old Tao Nan School. Often the approach to matters of style was highly eclectic, and builders combined a variety of stylistic elements from various European, and some non-European, sources in the same building. Many colonial-era buildings are still found in the city, as a result of aggressive
conservation efforts of Singapore's built heritage since the 1980s.
Art Deco architecture Singapore has a wealth of
Art Deco architecture, dating mainly from the 1920s and 1930s. The style was especially popular in commercial architecture, like factories and offices. Often, Art Deco style ornaments and elements were applied onto otherwise typical shophouses or bungalows. In other cases, Art Deco was applied to newly emergent types of buildings, like
Kallang Airport (by the Public Works Department), the
Ford Factory (by Emile Brizay), or the
Cathay Building (by Frank Brewer) and the
Asia Insurance Building (by Ng Keng Siang). Features of this style in the local context included a penchant for inscribing the date of the erection of the building prominently on its facade, the use of projecting horizontal fins as sun shading devices over windows and the use of flagpoles. Quite apart from the aesthetics of this style, the Art Deco period also marked the introduction of modern construction technologies like reinforced concrete in Singapore. ==Post-colonial modern architecture==