National Museum

The landscape wraps around the elegant Museum buildings at the foot of Fort Canning

The Museum is an amalgam of ultra-modern and classical historic architecture, tucked into the hillslopes of Fort Canning, at the very heart of Singapore’s heritage. This position at the foot of the hill, gives the building complex a broad and open green forecourt, set well back from the roads. Very large existing trees shade the walkways leading to both museum and Fort Canning, now graced with an outdoor escalator to bring people to the higher level. The building itself steps up the terrain at the back, with uphill gardens leading all the way into the fascinating Fort Canning Park.

The landscape is simple but rich in texture and form, expressing the tropical nature of the place, not wanting to compete with the delicately moulded building facades, but framing them with horizontal and vertical greenery. For the presentation of a fine building such as this, the landscape draws on the largest element in an outdoor composition, the air-space, keeping the vistas open with wide lawns, while framing the visual focal points with trees and shrubberies. Landscapes like this, attached to Heritage buildings, lend themselves to having sculptures, courtyard gardens, artworks and events, adding value by making space.

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