British Colonial Architecture in Singapore: The Raffles Hotel Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, focusing on its British colonial architecture. It begins with an introduction to the colonial context, detailing the history of Singapore and the impact of British rule on its architectural style. The report then delves into the history of the Raffles Hotel itself, including its founding, architectural style, and various renovations. It explores the architectural style of the hotel, highlighting the influence of climate on its conservation and design. The report also examines the conservation efforts undertaken to preserve the hotel's heritage, including conservation master plans and the role of organizations like the Heritage Society. Furthermore, it discusses the impact of climate change on architecture and the relevance of events like the Venice Biennale to conservation. The report also provides an in-depth look at the hotel's architectural style and the impact of climate change on its preservation.

British colonial architecture in Singapore:
Raffles Hotel

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
COLONIAL CONTEXT.................................................................................................................1
History of Singapore....................................................................................................................1
Architecture of Singapore............................................................................................................2
Raffles Hotel history....................................................................................................................2
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE OF RAFFLES HOTEL....................................................................3
How climate has impacted the conservation and style of architecture............................................5
Climate change............................................................................................................................5
Climate change impacting architecture.......................................................................................5
HVAC system..............................................................................................................................7
CONSERVATION........................................................................................................................11
Conservation of cultural heritage...............................................................................................11
Conservation in political context...............................................................................................12
Conservation master plans.........................................................................................................13
HERITAGE SOCIETY.................................................................................................................15
Why is Venice biennale not relevant or is it relevant....................................................................16
Venice biennale.........................................................................................................................16
Venice biennale relevant or not.................................................................................................16
Impact Venice biennale has on conservation.............................................................................17

INTRODUCTION
Starting from the time of 1496 when King Henry 7th of England succeed on the thrown of
Portugal and Spain exploration and exploitation of different countries of world started by rule of
Britain. The British Empire consist of territories, dominions and colonies ruled or managed by
UK and its predecessors states which gained most domination between 16th-18th centuries. Its rule
is regarded to as largest empire in the history for ruling more than half of world for over a
century (Lee, 2017). Till the time of 1913 British Empire had covered about 35,500,000 km2
which is 245 of the total area of world, with 412 million people which is 23% of world’s
population. This resulted into spread of culture, political, legal and linguistic legacy into whole
world including to areas where its colonies was not there. This caused much of the increased in
population of Britain with dramatic rate, with having urbanisation at rapid rate and significantly
causing economic, social and political stress as well.
COLONIAL CONTEXT
With the colonial power of England which was penetrating into different parts of world
with rapidly growing and improving cultural and political effect. Most effect of British rule was
laid down on architectural style of different countries where they were ruling which is still the
same in parts of world. There were number of countries which were under the rule of British
Empire some of them are Afghanistan (1919), Australia (1901), Canada (1867), Egypt (1922),
India (1947), Malaysia (1965) and many more. Colonial architecture is that style and type of
architecture which is incorporate from any mother country and building up colonise and
settlements in distant locations. These were very frequently built up in countries which are part
or under rule of some other strong power country by designing characteristic of their new lands
(Kusno, 2017). There are many types of colonial architecture within world like that of Spanish,
Portuguese, British, French, Dutch and Italian.
History of Singapore
From all these above British colonial architecture is most visible in countries like that in
South Asia, North America, Far East and Australia. Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley Raffles FRS
founded Singapore and British Malaya in 1819 as the trading post of British East India
Company. But rather its written history is date back to 3rd century. Singapore was ruled under
Parameswara was is regarded to as last king of country who was expelled by Majapahit in 14th
century (Kothari, 2015). Then in 1511 Singapore was ruled by Johor Sultanate after which Sir
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Thomas came into treaty with Johor to allow British to locate trading port on island of Singapore
with this British colony was established in 1819. At the time of 2nd World War Singapore was
occupied by Japan which from the period of 1942-1945. After this rule country was again taken
over by British rule with increase of self-government granted and merging with Malaysia in 1963
and got separated from Malaysia in 1965.
Despite facing so many crisis and many time situation of unemployment country
embarked as beginning of modern program in late 1960 and early 1970. Till 1990 Singapore
became world’s most prosperous nation with having highly developed free market economy with
having linkage of trade and highest per capita income in Asia other than Japan (Luyt, 2017). The
country was lacking natural resources and hinterland but then also it managed to become Asian
Tiger Economy with its external trade. The country at present is the global hub of logistic,
innovation, technology, finance, entertainment, healthcare, education, human capital, transport
and travel-tourism.
Architecture of Singapore
The architecture of Singapore is also displaying wide range of influence and impact of
style from different places of world and from various periods as well. These include hybrid form,
eclectic style, and traditional architecture, modern and colonial one as well. The whole city or
Singapore was founded and planned by Sir Thomas Raffles in 1822 the layout which he designed
is still surviving into present day Singapore. All the areas for government, commercial,
education, religious buildings and ethnic communities were specified by him during planning
which was taken place (Blair, 2017). Size of houses of people, widths of street and the type of
material to be used everything was planned by him.
The regulation of city was having its influence on the architecture buildings and its
effects are still to be seen in shop houses that were of 3 stories high and need to be obligatory
five foot way. Raffles also opted the Malay style of house which was made of wood and atap.
George Drumgoole Coleman responsible for European style buildings was one of the 1st well
trained architect of Singapore.
Raffles Hotel history
Raffles Hotel was founded in 1887 in Beach road Singapore by Sarkies Brothers
established by Armenian hoteliers and named it after Sir Thomas Raffles who is regarded to as
founded of Singapore. The hotel is owned by AccorHotels is a French multinational hotel group
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and is Flagship property of Raffles Hotels and Resort which is international group of hotels
serving worldwide area (Cheer and Reeves, 2015). It was initially founded as the beach hotel in
1830 and then was leased out to Emerson’s hotel in 1878 but soon after death of Charles
Emerson hotel was closed in 1883. But the lease of hotel expired in 1887 after which Raffles
institution taken over it in way of building up high ended hotel. after this on 1st December 1887
10 room Raffles hotel was opened its closeness to beach, providing higher quality and standard
of service and satisfied customers from accommodation made the hotel more and more popular.
After this the hotel began to see many new changes within like having 3 new buildings on
hotel 2 of which were completed in 1890 having 22 rooms each. Then the 3rd building was leased
on the nearby building and removed in 1894 the Palm Court Wing which totalled to 75 rooms.
The new building built up in 1899 was constructed at the beach site giving the art for various
times including, electric lights and ceiling fans as well thus making Raffles hotel first hotel
within the whole region to have these electric lights. Since this time hotel witnessed so many
different expansion and troubles like there was addition of ballroom, veranda and bar. But rather
in 1931 during time of Great Depression Sarkies Brothers announced the bankruptcy of hotel and
for this in 1933 Raffles Hotel Ltd. public company was founded for resolving these issues
(MacKenzie, 2014). Raffles Hotel was declared to as National Monument by Government of
Singapore in 1987 it was first opened after a century in 1987.
Then after 2 years in 1989 the hotel was again closed due to its restructuring, renovation
and reconstruction for the cost £160 million which further took 2 years and it was reopened in
1991 (Singapore's Raffles Hotel to change hands, 2018). Again in 2005 Raffles hotels were
purchased by Colony Capital LLC for worth $1.45 billion. Qatari Sovereign Wealth Fund bought
the hotel in 2010 for $275 million and additionally invested about $467 million into FRHI Hotels
& Resorts so that they could be having 40% share into the chain of hotels. The Raffles hotel was
also managed as working museum which displayed various works of artists who have sometime
stayed within hotel like postcard, silver and china items, photographs and rare edition as well
(Harding, 2018). In 2012 again Raffles Hotel Singapore was closed for the restoration planned to
be reopened in 2019.
ARCHITECTURAL STYLE OF RAFFLES HOTEL
Raffles Hotel Singapore is one of the oldest hotel of country which is having the impact
and influence of British colonisation history. there are number of facilities which hotel tend to
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provide both before and after renovation like that of tiffin rooms, restaurants, museum, bar,
billiard room, spa, gardens, Victorian style theatre, shopping Arcade with 40+ stores and veranda
as well (Raffles Singapore, 2018). It is regarded to as 1st modern hotel of Singapore with having
electric lights and fans within making it modern at that time. These changes in architecture are
not only witnessed by Raffles Hotel but also by others in country (Bueltmann and Robinson,
2016). As before the rule of Britain in Singapore all houses were built in traditional Malay
fashion that were made of foliage and wood but it is worth noticing that nothing has remained in
today’s time. Then under the rule of British colony the government of UK build up many historic
building with use of modern and European style of architecture like that of Neoclassical which is
seen in Raffles hotel. World War 2nd the hotel faced many change taking which was having the
clean and simple construction material.
It was included that Raffles is the only luxury hotels remained of the 19th century in
Singapore that is at present undergoing restoration program that would continue till mid of next
year 2019. This is to be taken into 3 different phrases starting from January 2017. During this
renovation Raffles Hotel Arcade will be undergoing the restoration at first and rest area of
property could be operated and functioned as normal as they are. In mid of 2017 2nd phase was
started including renovation of areas like that of lobby, hotel suite and building of hotel as well.
Then the final and 3rd phase was started in end of 2017 which includes close down of whole hotel
premises and remained close for mid of 2019 (Bueltmann and Robinson, 2016). The cocktail bar
of hotel is the invention site of world famous Singapore Sling which attracted many renowned
literary and artistic guest like that of Rudyard Kipling and Somerset Maugham. The renovation
phase of hotel will be ensuring the retention of services, heritage, charm and ambiance of hotel
which makes it very much important and special as well. This is done to keep track with
changing need, want and expectation of service of all guest and customers who are visiting and
this is also regarded to as factor of success for company.
Raffle Hotel was acquired by Qatari Diar which is real estate section of Qatar Investment
authority (QIA) for about $275 million. With the amount of $467 for the exchange of stake into
hotel there is also $105 million for the hotel management which ended the deal to about $847
million. After renovation hotel would be having about 103 rooms which will be under the
refurbishment plan of the owners and 75 more rooms will be added further for enhancing its
leisure facilities and retail plan as well.
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How climate has impacted the conservation and style of architecture
Climate change
Climate change is one of the major problem which is faced by people all around the
world making it prominent and primary issue to be resolved on timely bases. But rather it keeps
on increasing as and when the time is passing sudden rain, many areas in drought while others
having heavy rainfall and extreme weather conditions are some of its impact (Raub, Endut and
Saberi, 2015). This is the change in distribution pattern of weathers when it is changing from
much extended period of time like from decades to millions of year. This is affecting the average
weather into the context of longer variation of weather causing from the factors such as changes
in solar radiation, volcanic eruptions and biotic process. Effects and activities of humans are also
regarded to cause of climate change cycles which is referred to as global warming.
This climate change will be impacting buildings, monuments and construction sites more
or less it is always advised to prepare road or building according to changing climatic conditions.
There is chance that wetter winter or sudden rainfall would be making the houses and roads
dangerous for people and animals as well. While on other hand the milder climate will be
causing sudden impact on reduction of durability for all buildings and roads to affect indoor
climate. Apart from these the places like Singapore which is situated near coastline is always at
greater risk of storm, higher level of water and that of ground water level.
Climate change impacting architecture
In these case of wilder and milder weather whether it is winter, summer or rainfall its
greater impact will be on buildings and monuments (Henderson, 2001). They are the most
vulnerable to climatic changes and then there will be higher and increased in risk of collapse,
risk of loss of value, more storm, water encroachment, reducing building lifetime, decreasing
climate inside the hotel and declining health and safety of people as well. At several parts of
hotel there will be risk of safety to existing areas if they are too much old and not up to the code
of safety requirement of hotel or building (Climate change impact on buildings and
constructions, 2018). As Raffles Hotel is 131 years old building although reconstructed many
times into its history then also due to situated near sea coast it will be having too many risk and
danger to climate change. Storms will be the most risky of all these climatic change activities
which need to be improved for keeping hotel safe and secure. If there is very longer heat waves
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within the situated areas so there could have many health related consequence for weak and
elders living in hotels.
The effect of climate is very much witnessed on architecture forms and especially into the
old monuments. There are changes into the architectural forms at different parts of world like in
the tropical regions defect and problems of heat is witnessed very much so the house of India and
Iraq will be having overhangs casting for long shadows on wall of buildings. In warm areas
people would be decreasing the size of their windows and people living near equator would be
making their proportion of window area more away from wall. There is seen within Denmark
that they are adapting their changes within climate very much as they build up their house to
limit down the snow load and storm damages as well so that it could be controlling indoor
climate as well. It is also seen that for renovating the existing building there are adaptation of
strengthening and new construction standards (Henderson, 2004). For resisting during the time of
heat waves and storm installation of air conditioning into buildings and hotels are expected so
that indoor room temperature could be controlled. These are the changing trends within
international architecture as only changing one particular thing would not mean that there is
change within whole response to environment.
When an engineer designs a machine, a bridge, or a regulator, each line in his drawings is
the result of a great accumulation of laws and principles from a dozen different mechanical
sciences. He designs the machine to withstand a certain amount of strain and to do a particular
job. In both these aspects he must consider and apply all that he has been taught in such fields as
physics, dynamics, structural mechanics, and the resistance of materials, and must put into each
line a whole library of expertise.
Similarly, when an architect designs a town or a building, every line is determined by the
application of the same complex set of mechanical laws, with the addition of a whole collection
of other sciences whose provinces are less well defined: the sciences that concern man in his
environment and society impact (Raub, Endut and Saberi, 2015). These sciences-sociology,
economics, climatology, theory of architecture, aesthetics, and the study of culture in general-are
no less important to the architect than are the mechanical sciences, for they are directly
concerned with man, and it is for man that architecture exists.
The mechanical side of an architect's work-ensuring that his building will stand and
provide protection against the elements, or that the street pattern of a town performs its function
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efficiently-is no more than a preliminary to his real creation. Only when he has provided these
mechanical prerequisites, which should be incorporated without question or argument, can he
begin to consider the real problem of designing a building. He is rather like the pianist who can
start to interpret the music he plays only after he has mastered the technique of piano playing. A
machine is independent of its environment. It is little affected by climate and not at all by
society. A person, however, is a member of a living organism that constantly reacts to its
environment, changing it and being changed by it.
A plant provides a good example of the mutual interaction between a living organism and
its environment. It possesses its own heat and water economies. Its respiratory heat is the result
of metabolism which tends to raise its temperature, just as with animals. It perspires, and the
evaporation of this perspiration leads to cooling, since every gram of water given off requires
(between 570 and 601) calories from the plant, depending on the air temperature. Consequently,
plants exert a reaction on the microclimate of their environment and to some extent adjust their
own temperature to their particular needs. In the same way, a building is affected by its
environment (Bueltmann and Robinson, 2016). The climate of the locality and the buildings
around it mould the building, so that, even though social, cultural, and economic aspects are
important, it owes much of its shape to these factors.
It is also worth noticing that the building up of monuments and architecture will harm
environment and climate which means that it is causing climate changes. So it will be having
larger impact onto the environment or climate of country. Mostly it is noted that all buildings
would be impacting the climate but this also have the opposite impact which includes effect of
climate on architecture. Ventilation within any form of building is very much important in all
type of architecture which is also regarded to as basic fundamental functioning of these
buildings. It is the intentional layout of any of the building that would be having special room or
space for the correct flow of air in and out of the building so that indoor air quality could be
controlled and dilute the indoor pollutants and humidity could be lessen.
HVAC system
This was very much seen in old and historic buildings as well at time of climatic
responsiveness and to be able to control interior and exterior conditions of house. All type of
buildings whether houses or hotels that were built in past were conceiving the strength of dealing
within climatic conditions and natural disaster as well. The buildings in modern times are built
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with keeping in mind many things like that of ventilation, air-conditioning, and preventing
natural disaster and for overcoming adverse climatic conditions as well. So for these HVAC
systems must be used by architect which means heating, ventilating and air conditioning. The
HVAC system is very much effective as this includes for larger size of air conditioners and
ventilation system which are used within industrial complexes or apartments as well. This system
mainly aims at providing indoor comfort and thermal control over certain number of principles
like that of heat transfer and fluid mechanics (Harding, 2018). This is very essential part of
bigger apartments especially within hotels so that safety and security of the building could be
ensured in respect with humidity and temperature as well. People living in different areas will be
requiring various types of HVAC system which may differ from each other to larger extent.
There are various types of heating systems that are used by people all across world like some use
ductwork in way of providing heat to all parts of hotels or building while some of them using
furnaces which help into burning of materials and then provide heat to whole building. In this
current times radiant floor are very much popular that is called to as hydronic heating with use of
pipes under floor of buildings and hotels so that they could be helping into heating up of floor so
that it could provide warmth during time of winters.
There is another system which is called to as cooling system which aims at cooling down
the temperature of rooms and is made available in various buildings including that of hotels,
hospitals and complexes (Cheer and Reeves, 2015). The air conditions or AC are coming into
various forms smaller one for just houses and larger massive one for bigger buildings to cool
down whole area with just one AC. At the area where there are dryer weather evaporative
coolers are also used which would help into drawing the outer air into the system and then
cooling it down through use of water saturated pads that would cool and moist down the air.
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Figure 1: HVAC SYSTEMS WORKING
[Source: HVAC systems, 2018]
The above figure illustrate how the HVAC system is generally working for example there
are wall mounted gadgets which are determine the room temperature and the required heating or
cooling temperature that is required accordingly. Then afterwards the system will be determining
whether to heat up or cool down the coils from inside. Then the air would be passed onto these
coils from outside that will either be heated up or cooled down according to the required
temperature and then passed on to living spaces (Luyt, 2017). To the same time the air which is
inside the room would be displaced to the system so that it could be taken outside the room for
the fresh air to come inside.
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Figure 2: Smaller air conditioning systems
[Source: HVAC systems, 2018]
While on other hand the above figure is working just opposite of the HVAC system that
is collecting the heat from within the space or rooms and then dispatching it outside the room.
These are called to as smaller air conditioning systems which are working as reverse of HVAC
system by collecting the heat from inside room or spaces and then pushing it outside so as to
lower down the room temperature (HVAC systems, 2018). It is having 5 major parts which are all
together working according to their specified functions:
Condenser- This is the device for condensing the substance from the gaseous state to its liquid
form in way of cooling it which would involve to have heating transfer.
Compressor- This is also called to as heartbeat of whole system which increases the pressure of
gas in way of reducing the volume of gas so that it could be easily passed on.
Evaporator- This is having main function to be performed which would be turning the substance
from its liquid to gaseous state mainly that of water so that it could be evaporated.
Expansion valve- This will be removing the pressure from the liquid refrigerant so that change
of state from liquid to vapour or gas could be formed into the evaporator.
Receiver drier- This functions as the preserving sheet or area for the good quality of air which is
having drying agent and a filter which could be removing the contaminants from the system.
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