An architectural study on the Furama City Centre

FURAMA

HOTEL

Emir Hamzah Bin Mustaffa Qamal 1002804 Simon-Kyle Rocknathan 1002813 Lim Hai Heng Lester 1002771

Furama

One of the corridors in the second-level shopping area

The view along the corridor of the second-level shopping area.

(Photo: original)

Contents

Furama

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The Architect 6 Overview and Specifications

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History

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Research and Ground Observations

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Interview with the Architect

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Thoughts on modernism

Furama

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The Architect Alfred Wong Partnership

Mr. Alfred HK Wong was born on 4 January 1930 in Hong Kong. He graduated in 1953 with Honours in Design from Melbourne University. In 1957, he founded the firm Alfred Wong Partnership and has since, worked closely with several ministerial departments, appointed by the Government of Singapore as a Member of the Commission of Enquiry into the Building Industry and sat on the Development Control Committee. Mr Wong was the President of the Singapore Institute of Architects from 1963 to 1965 and retained a council member position until 1972 before becoming a member of the Institute’s Practise Committee.

Over the next decade, his numerous appointments included positions with Energy Conservation Building Committee, the Public Service Displinary Panel, the Ministry of the Architectural Design Panel, the Mass Rapid Transit Authority, and the URA Restoration and Development Panel. Mr. Wong continued holding key panel positions in both governmental and non-governmental organisations.

In 1998, he became the first recipient of the Singapore Institute of Architects Gold Medal, awarded for a lifetime contribution to Architecture. In 2005, he was conferred the BBM (Public Service Star) as part of the National Dy Honours.

View of Furama City Centre from Hong Lim Park (Photo: SIAJ)

Furama

Overview Furama City Centre was one of the first luxury hotel developments at the Chinatown precinct. It was designed to take advantage of both the view overlooking Hong Lim Green (currently Hong Lim Park) and the busy street corner of Eu Tong Sen Street and Havelock Road.

Furama City Centre was iconic for its unique tower design which outwardly expressed the verticality of the hotel. It sits on a four-storey podium which houses the retail and commercial section of the building. The primary architect for the building is Mr. Alfred Wong together with his firm AWP Architects (formerly Alfred Wong Partnership). This 92-meter building was completed in October 1984 for developer Veneer Hotels.

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Overview and Specifications

Specifications Furama Singapore Hotel

Address 60 Eu Tong Sen Street, Singapore 059804

Height 92m

Developer Veneer Hotels Pte Ltd

Number of Floors 24 (Excluding 2 levels of basement carpark)

Architect AWP Architect (formerly Alfred Wong Partnership)

Number of Rooms 324

Construction Contractor Kajima Corporation

Strategy Tower and Podium

Type Hotel and Commercial

Site Area 4150sqm

Plot Ratio 3.9

Gross Floor Area (Max) 32,370sqm

Completion Date October 1984

SIDE ELEVATION

View of Furama Hotel from Eu Tong Sen St (Mid 1980s).

(Photo: National Heritage Board)

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History

Furama City Centre or what was initially The Furama Hotel Project, was the result of a successful tender submitted by the project owner to the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore. The site is the result of reparcellation of smaller properties in the area which then amalgamated into an urban site of 4150sqm. The brief as outlined by URA calls for a construction of a shopping complex in combination with a 400-room hotel within a stipulated time frame. The number of rooms eventually settled on 324 due to business strategies. Three retail floors are provided in this project, with the hotel lobby situated on the second storey, linked by staircase and escalators directly to the ground floor.

The hotel was first managed by All Nippon Airways (ANA) Hotels. During its official opening on 29 October 1984, the hotel featured state-of-the-art computerized management systems and ‘talking’ lifts with information panels. The hotel was renamed Furama City Center in October 2004 following the handover of hotel management to Furama Hotels International Management (FHI).

Due to its prime location in the bustling Chinatown area, the retail section of the building was strategically laid out to engage the street. This affected the conception of the building’s design strategy and circulation.

The result is in the form of the hotel lobby that can be self-contained and away from the dense pedestrian traffic of the vicinity.

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Furama

Research + Ground Observations Research into Furama City Center could be categorized into circulation and programmatic layout, architectural concept and strategy and site considerations.

Based on the first visit to the site, we observed a clear distinction between retail services and the hotel itself. This formed our theory on the circulation and programmatic layout where the retail portion was planned to have stronger physical and visual links to surrounding amenities while being independent from the hotel. Starting from the ground floor, it was only until we circled the perimeter filled with shops that we found ourselves at the porte cochere at the back of the hotel (along Havelock Square) that lead us up the main lobby via an escalator.

As seen from the floorplan, there is no internal circulation through the retail portion of the building that introduces us to the frontage of the lobby entrance (bottom left of floorplan).

Moving upwards to the second storey, the circulation either begins from the entrance escalator or from the two overhead bridges linking to People’s Park Center and Havelock 2. Even here, the same separation is observed where the main lobby form an inward central atrium while shops are expressed outwards facing the street and appear to be connected to the two overhead bridges mentioned previously.

Atrium-Style Lobby that is brought above the ground level shops. The escalator brings guests directly in from the Porte Cochere.

CANAL ROAD

service area

shops

o ith s t r w tor y ye la bb fo sca lo e ain m service road

1ST STOREY PLAN

main hotel lobby

coffee house bar lounge

2ND STOREY PLAN

Research and Ground Observations

SITE PLAN

HOTEL BEDROOM FLOOR

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Porte Cochere that provides access to Hotel Lobby along Havelock Square 2

Shops facing the streets on the same level as lobby 3

Atrium Style Lobby

Our theory is further supported when referenced to the pictures and plans shown previously. Hotel guests are only required to stick to the inner circulation in the atrium while shoppers may have the retail experience without going in the lobby. With such linkages and circulation, the building itself acts as an interchange point for pedestrians moving from Canal Road to Eu Tong Sen Street, New Market Road or the People’s Park Centre.

The building adopts a podium and tower strategy where podium is from the first to fourth storey while the tower on the fifth storey onwards. Programmatically, storeys 1 to 4 house the retail and the lobby. The fifth storey and above are reserved for facilities only accessible to guests. For instance, fifth storey houses the hotel’s swimming pool, recreation spaces and the main restaurant. It is also where the guest rooms first appear.

The design of Furama City Centre aims to break away from the mold of buildings in the Chinatown area while still be very much connected. The podium is designed and oriented in such a way that it complements and informs the streetscape. Along the ground floor, the traditional five-foot way is incorporated along the perimeter and forms part of the streetscape. This covered walkway appealed to the tradition of vernacular buildings in Singapore. This could be a strategy to drive pedestrian traffic through the building.

As for the tower (or towers), the stepping of the hotel block with different heights tend to relieve the large number of rectilinear blocks already existing in this locality. This general sloping roof-line which is composed of smaller barrel-vaults. Cumulatively, the towers are designed with an “L” shaped hotel block diagonally facing Hong Lim Park to take full advantage of the open park.

Research and Ground Observations

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Research and Ground Observations

Structures are well expressed in this building and they have multiple functionalities. Sloping trusses that hold the towers from the back are used to provide some screening for the sun-deck area to ensure privacy for the users.

It also provides shade to the paved area of the sun-deck. The language of the sloped trusses is conveyed onto the sloped podium on the lobby end of the building. This sloped end allowed skylight to enter the atrium of the hotel.

Buttresses are also observed holding up the towers from the podium. These buttresses form flared out spaces that function as balconies for the lower floor rooms. As such, we can see many aspects of the design strategy where “form follows function”.

Due to the diagonality of the towers facing Hong Lim Park, the side elevation of Furama City Centre would reveal a facetted treatment of the façade coupled with a tiled finish.

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Furama

The Interview with Mr. Alfred Wong

Browsing through journals and archive gave us a good understanding in the concepts and strategies of the Furama Hotel. Coupled with site observations, we developed certain theories in the architecture of the building. However, we still wanted to know what the architect himself has to say about his project.

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The Interview

We scheduled an interview with Mr. Alfred Wong with the help of our professor, Dr. Lai Chee Kien on the 14th of March 2019 in his house at Bin Tong Park. After a short introduction, Mr. Wong began explaining some history of the project.

The client himself, according to Mr. Wong, was a businessman who wanted to venture into the hotel industry. He won the tender by bidding the highest price. The client’s brief was clear; he wanted to maximise the commercial and shopping potential as much as he could. He also wanted to insert as many hotel units as possible. It was mainly business requirements.

Mr. Wong found himself starting with a blank sheet of paper. Unlike hotel ateliers who would suggest certain designs to the architect, the client had minimal design intentions. Our theory was confirmed when Mr. Wong stated that his strategy was to have the shopping centre as a separate entity from the hotel.

This way, the management could be separated into one running the hotel and one running the retail independently and efficiently. As a result, he designed for separate circulation strategies and site response.

The podium aligns perfectly with the street and features seamless access to surrounding amenities. As for the tower, it stands independently from the street but aligns itself with view to the open park. According to Mr. Wong, Furama Hotel was the only building in the area to acknowledge and take full advantage of the existence of Hong Lim Park.

Enquiry was made on whether there was any modernistic influence into his project. He made it very clear that there was no design intention to make it a “modern�-styled building. But he did reveal that the business requirements that focused on maximizing function did in fact influence the form.

For instance, he wanted an open and clear atrium with no beams spanning across. As such, the buttress support for the towers only began above the podium. This was supported via large columns that was exposed and visible within the atrium. Same line of reasoning was applied for the exposed sloping trusses, which supported the towers and provided shade, and for the vertical hotel block designed which maximized the number of rooms and the common view.

Mr. Wong then explained his decision behind the vault roofs of the building. He stated that vaults conveniently hide services such as the air-cooling units and the water tanks so that it would not be easily seen from neighboring buildings. This shows Mr. Wong’s consideration to the importance of design consistency from every angle of the building.

To Mr. Wong, being modern means to design something suitable to our purposes, the way people use our buildings and using materials suitable to our context. We asked if the Brutalist influence in the 60s and 70s affect the design of his buildings in this period. His response was honest, stating that Singapore never had the pre or post-modern period and just came out from colonial rule. As such, architects of his time had to come up with their own style suitable for the conditions of Singapore. For instance, he could have easily followed the fad of fair-faced concrete facades that were typical of western modernist buildings.

However, he vehemently opposed it and went for the beautiful tiled finish that lasts and self-cleaning. Exposed concrete will trap dirt and mould and would require expensive maintenance in tropical Singapore. It was also worth mentioning that the 1980s was the time the Singaporean government was bringing international companies who brought with them the international style for their buildings. As such, he could be easily influenced and followed the glass facades and have his buildings up to the street edge.

However, due to his strong local understanding, he preserved the five-foot way, arguing that it is modern because of its amazing function as protection from the local climate.

At the end of the interview, he reiterated that there was “no point copying something (architecture) just because it is fashionable�, implying to us that being modern meant much more than just styles but to design based on needs of the local culture.

The Interview

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View of atrium highlighting exposed atriums

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Furama

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Thoughts on Modernism

While we initially postulated the unique verticality of the towers and the exposed structures to be the primary modernistic aspect of the building, we learnt that modernity is not merely skin deep.

Modernity in the Furama Hotel project is seen in almost every aspect of the building, from larger ones such as the hotel and retail separation strategy to minor details such as spotting a tiled faรงade. The most important lesson on modernity that we gathered from our research and time with Mr. Alfred Wong was that now more so than ever, form had to follow function. In the case of this project, the function being the maximization of business for both retail and the hotel services.

In addition, function could only be fully realized when you adapt parts of your building to local needs and environment.

The side elevation epitomizes the concept of modernity as explained. Here, the separation of podium and tower in terms of orientation and style is clear. The five-foot way that engages the streetscape is evident on the ground floor. It serves both the local behavior and in turn drive business to these shops.

Moreover, a continuous sloping roof line is expressed via the vault system which not only distinguishes the building from neighboring properties but also subtly hide the rooftop services.

To conclude, we would like to highlight one of the memorable advice that Mr. Wong had for young architects in Singapore. He mentioned that it is vital for us to understand business proceedings. Most of the time, it is the business requirements that will influence the architectural strategy, function and form of the buildings. To achieve this would require the combination of thoughtful and purpose-driven design thinking. To us, this is modernism.

References The Furama Hotel at Eu Tong Sen Street – National Heritage Board.

Available from: https://roots.sg/learn/collections/listing/1210461 Singapore Institute of Architects Journal 1981 (Page 19) – Singapore Institute of Architects Singapore Institute of Architects Journal 1984 (Page 47-49) – Singapore Institute of Architects

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