walls are constructed from century old Chinese hand-made bricks, salvaged from the building erected in 1840 and demolished from the site where the chapel now stands.
The social hall/office block has four floors. The floor that is level with the chapel is used as a social hall and the floor below is used as offices. The floor above is used as a small apart- ment while the topmost floor is used
as a further extension of the women's quarters.
Concrete work and exposed brick- work are cement rendered and painted white with Snowcem or Sandtex tro- wel. The old Chinese hand-made bricks are left in their natural state and the rest of the finishes are left in their natural finish and texture.
The main chapel floor is finished in Cociame tiles and the chancel end is in
white terrazzo laid in situ. Mosaic tiles surround the terrace outside.
The roof form was difficult to con- struct. Laminated timber construction was first studied for the roof beams but was not adopted because of fire hazards (little is known of the reliabi- lity of this technique in Singapore).
A concrete roof slab was also con- sidered but because of the heavy slab loading at the centre, the roof beams had to be necessarily big and so this type of weighty construction was also discarded.
A light roof construction was final- ly selected. The right and left portions of the beams were calculated as curved beams, the controlling dimensions being at the bend of the right hand side curve where it shoots vertically upwards.
The sizes and dimensions of the two centre cross ties were determined by the centre moment and careful de- tailing was required for the junctions. Projected roof beams beyond the sup- ports contributed a fair share towards reducing the moment loadings.
Costs
The construction time was about ten months and the total cost was ap- proximately $$209,123, made up as follows:
Building works, inclusive of
S$
Both communion table and cross retain the natural bark
Y
Interpreter's booth with organ chamber on one side
24
electrical and sanitary
works
171,032.46
Plexiglass panels
7,949,12
Furniture, finishings and
fittings
7,916.43
Sound and interpretation
5,654.65
3,178.00
13,393.08
system
Electrical fittings
External works
Contractors
The main contractor was Leow Seng Nam Building Construction. Sub-contractors and suppliers in- cluded:
Aluminium frames and installation of Plexiglas coloured panels - Yoong Tat Metal Works Ltd.
Plexiglas - Behn Meyer & Co. Ltd. Special plastic lights and signs - Electro Mechanical Industries Ltd.
-
Carpeting at chancel Robinson and Co. Ltd.
Kliplok roof - Guthrie Waugh (S) Pte. Ltd.
General light fittings Sin Ma Electric Co.
Sound and interpretation systems - Wm. Jacks & Co. (S) Sdn. Bhd.
Fire fighting equipment McAlis- ter & Co. Ltd.
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Far East BUILDER, March 1970
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