Denmark House Major New Singapore Office Building
Architects:-
Van Sitteren
& Partners
Denmark House is one of the major office buildings recently completed in Singapore. It stands on the site of the old Singapore headquarters of the East Asiatic Company, Ltd., (hence its name), at the corner Telegraph St. and Raffles Quay, overlooking Singapore Harbour.
of
The new building is now head- quarters for a number of bank. ing, shipping and commercial inter- ests, all joint owners with the East Asiatic Co. Ltd., who retain the ma- jor interest.
The design of the building was determined basically by three major factors: The requirements of the Singapore Improvement Trust, the local Planning authorities; the space requirements of the various owner- occupants, and the orientation of the building.
To suit the requirements of the S.I.T. the building had to be set back above the second floor level along along the Telegraph St. frontage, a 20 ft. turning radius had to be provided at the street intersection, and the total height of the building had to be limited to nine storeys. These factors led to the design of the build- ing as two interpenetrating masses, as the photograph illustrates.
The offices of the
the East Asiatic Co., Ltd., and The First National City Bank of New York, who share the lower floors, were planned as completely independent establish- ments, each with its own street en- trance and its own lift and staircase. The upper floors are served by two high-speed passenger lifts and one service lift from the main entrance in Telegraph St.
The two main facades face south- east and south-west, and deep con- crete fins, acting as giant louvres, were therefore provided to protect these facades from the morning and
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A
DENMARK HOUSE
New headquarters.
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afternoon sun. The windows, angled so as to face directly south, are con- tinuous for the full height of the building. The glass thus serves dual purpose, acting as a facing for the wall spandrels between the actual window openings. On the projecting lower floors, which are shaded for the most part by surrounding buildings, the walls are faced entirely with glass, in specially-extruded aluminium framing.
Pivoted windows have been fitted throughout, so that all cleaning can be carried out from within the build- ing, an important consideration where large areas of glass are used.
To eliminate deterioration and the need for periodic cleaning and re- painting, only permanent materials have been used externally. The win- dow fins are faced with blue Italian glass mosaics, windows are aluminium throughout, and marble has been used extensively for external facings-white marble for the upper floors and deep green for the ground floor.
TEE E DEE
The building is air-conditioned. Acoustic ceilings are provided throughout, and the floors are finish- ed in vinyl tiles. Telephone ducting is provided in most floors. The air- conditioning plant room, tank and switch rooms, Bank vaults and gen- eral storage areas are accommodated in a basement.
Nearly all the interiors and fittings in this building, particularly the Bank and shipping office on the ground floor, were designed by the architects.
Piling: Sime Darby (S'pore) Ltd. General Contractor: Lim Kah Ngam. Lifts: Harrisons Lister. Air-Conditioning: Sime Darby
(S'pore) Ltd.
Sanitary installation: Tong Nam
Contractors Ltd. Electrical installation: China En-
gineers Ltd.
Marble and Italian glass mosaic fac-
ings: Raoul Bigazzi (Singapore agent Clouet & Co. (M) Ltd.). Floor and Wall tiling: China En-
gineers Ltd
THE HONG KÔNG & FAR EAST BUILDER
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VOLUME 14. NUMBER 4