Gallery Hotel
Encyclopedia
Gallery Hotel is a four-star
boutique hotel
located on Nanson Road at Robertson Quay
on Singapore River
, in the Central Area of Singapore
. Originally known as Gallery Evason Hotel, it is the first "HIP" (Highly Individual Places) hotel in Singapore, and the second in Asia
, the first being in Japan
.
s when the area was designated for redevelopment by the Urban Redevelopment Authority
in the late 1990s.
The hotel was originally known as Gallery Evason Hotel, but dropped the "Evason" name in January 2002, when Six Senses Hotels, Resorts And Spas, which used to manage the hotel and owned the Evason brand
, withdrew from the management.
Constructed at a cost of S$38.9 million by developer and owner Robertson Quay Investments, the Gallery Hotel was completed in 2000 and opened on 11 September that year.
, Terence Conran
and Anouska Hempel
, these hotels were defined by Ypma as an "exciting, stylish alternative to the dreary sameness of chain hotels and the stuffy pomposity of traditional 'grand' hotels".
Local architectural firms William Lim Associates and Tangguanbee Architects, led by architects William S.W. Lim
, Tang Guan Bee and Teh Joo Heng, designed the Gallery Hotel. In 1990, the developer, Robertson Quay Investments, had approached the firms' two principal architects who suggested the HIP hotel notion. Robertson Quay Investments was convinced of the viability of the concept "that reflects a new aesthetic, a different way of doing things, and that caters to a growing group of design-savvy young customers with cash to spare".
Together with the developer, the architects sought to place Gallery Hotel in the HIP class of designer hotels that intentionally fall outside the staid star rating system
. The purpose was to create a specific lifestyle for the design-conscious jet setter who looks for the extraordinary. The Gallery Hotel, like other HIP hotels, strives to be more than a temporary abode
at one's destination; it aims to be the destination itself.
The Gallery Hotel has been listed in The Phaidon Atlas Of Contemporary Architecture along with works by architects like Herzog & de Meuron
, Frank Gehry
and Tadao Ando
. It is also featured in Ypma's HIP Hotels: Budget (2001).
between the two architectural firms has resulted in a flamboyant postmodern
pluralistic collage
of experimental building forms. The architecture
of the Gallery Hotel reads like a puzzle
and consists of several seemingly disjointed, unrelated building forms meshed together. These forms are each disparately expressed and connected by an intuitive circulation system of internal streets, gangways and stairway
s, thus giving a sense of urban
complexity to the scheme. With only a narrow end fronting the Singapore River, the architects adopted the concept of creating a microcosm
of the city in the restricted site, instead of a monolith
ic block which might have been the typical design response.
With a total gross floor area of 14,000 square metres (150,695 square feet), the Gallery Hotel consists of a main building complex divided into three distinct parts, with a series of smaller volumes of incongruent forms interspersed around it. Secondary facilities, such as restaurant
s and a health club
, are located in several building forms not contained within the main complex, but surrounding and attaching themselves like prosthetics to the parent hotel block. Attached to one side of the building are three large cylindrical glass and steel structures for food and beverage
outlets. The collage serves to enhance the building's notion of transparency and interaction
between the interior and exterior. The hotel's main building slab
is elevated above ground by sitting on a transparent glass-clad
lobby
. By not adopting the traditional hermetic
, inward-looking hotel atrium
, the hotel offers enhanced interaction with the surrounding urban environment.
The multi-coloured Mondrian
-esque fenestration
on the tower block juxtaposes the building's twisted cuboid
form. This gives the tower block the appearance of an oversized piece of pop art
fronting Mohamad Sultan Road. These windows seem random, but have been placed to maximise the picturesque views from the hotel rooms and to protect the privacy of the hotel guests. To complete the postmodern architectural style
, one of the building's façade
s facing Singapore River takes on a warehouse form, mirroring the simple pitched
roofs of the old warehouses that used to occupy the area.
The rooftop lap pool
with its cantilever
ed glass form looking over the street, the first of its kind in Singapore, is another element in the HIP design. The Gallery Hotel, which collaborated with Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts
, is also decorated with works of art, from neon lights to ashtray
s, to engage visitors in the HIP lifestyle. Even the treatment of texture
s is pluralistic, as seen in one of central rectilinear blocks, which is veiled by a perforated steel
screen that acts as both a climatic filter and a projection screen
.
roofs of former warehouses that occupied the area. Pipes and service
s are exposed in bright primary colours. The entrance foyer
consists of just an open-air space with a portable desk, like a valet parking
kiosk. The smallness of the lobby and the translucency between inside and outside indicate the nature of expected guests, congruent with the concept of HIP hotels not catering to large tour groups.
The Gallery Hotel has been designed as a cyber-age hotel where there is unlimited broadband Internet access. In conference rooms, instead of white-boards, metal surfaces, which form parts of the interior concept, are to be used for meetings using felt-tipped marker pen
s.
The fourth floor lobby features a reception desk in an open area next to a restaurant that looks like a garage
. Other distinct items of decor include hubcap
s to support bar stool
s and sections of aluminum scaffolding
for table legs.
On the guest floors, room numbers are labelled on the floor and wire mesh newspaper racks are fitted on to the wall outside each room. Each floor features original work from the Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, while all the rooms are individually decorated. The sleeping arrangements of guests were even taken into account during the architectural design: Single-bedded rooms, for individuals and couples, have translucent glass panes instead of solid walls separating bathroom and bedroom. There are also exclusive women's floors where even male staff are not allowed.
Star (classification)
Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...
boutique hotel
Boutique hotel
Boutique hotel is a term popularized in North America and the United Kingdom to describe intimate, usually luxurious or unique hotel environments. Boutique hotels differentiate themselves from larger chain/branded hotels and motels by providing personalized accommodation and services / facilities...
located on Nanson Road at Robertson Quay
Robertson Quay
Robertson Quay is a wharf near the source of the Singapore River and the largest and most upstream of the three wharfs on the Singapore River.-History:...
on Singapore River
Singapore River
The Singapore River is a river in Singapore with great historical importance. The Singapore River flows from the Central Area, which lies in the Central Region in the southern part of Singapore before emptying into the ocean...
, in the Central Area of Singapore
Singapore
Singapore , officially the Republic of Singapore, is a Southeast Asian city-state off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, north of the equator. An island country made up of 63 islands, it is separated from Malaysia by the Straits of Johor to its north and from Indonesia's Riau Islands by the...
. Originally known as Gallery Evason Hotel, it is the first "HIP" (Highly Individual Places) hotel in Singapore, and the second in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, the first being in Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
.
History
The Gallery Hotel was built on a 3,361 square metre (36,178 square feet) site in Robertson Quay, cleared of old warehouseWarehouse
A warehouse is a commercial building for storage of goods. Warehouses are used by manufacturers, importers, exporters, wholesalers, transport businesses, customs, etc. They are usually large plain buildings in industrial areas of cities and towns. They usually have loading docks to load and unload...
s when the area was designated for redevelopment by the Urban Redevelopment Authority
Urban Redevelopment Authority
The Urban Redevelopment Authority is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Singapore Government.-Mission:The authority was established on 1 April 1974, and is of especially critical importance to the city-state,...
in the late 1990s.
The hotel was originally known as Gallery Evason Hotel, but dropped the "Evason" name in January 2002, when Six Senses Hotels, Resorts And Spas, which used to manage the hotel and owned the Evason brand
Brand
The American Marketing Association defines a brand as a "Name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers."...
, withdrew from the management.
Constructed at a cost of S$38.9 million by developer and owner Robertson Quay Investments, the Gallery Hotel was completed in 2000 and opened on 11 September that year.
Highly individual places
The Gallery Hotel was conceptualised as a "HIP" (Highly Individual Places) hotel. This class of hotel was identified and classified by writer and photographer Herbert Ypma through two publications, HIP Hotels: City (1999) and HIP Hotels: Escape (2000). Associated with designers such as Philippe StarckPhilippe Starck
Philippe Patrick Starck is a French product designer and probably the best known designer in the New Design style...
, Terence Conran
Terence Conran
Sir Terence Orby Conran, FCSD, is an English designer, restaurateur, retailer and writer.-Early life and education:Terence Conran was born in Kingston upon Thames, the son of Christina Mabel and South African-born Gerard Rupert Conran, a businessman who owned a rubber importation company in East...
and Anouska Hempel
Anouska Hempel
Anouska Hempel, Lady Weinberg , born Anne Geissler, is a film and television actress turned hotelier and designer. She is also a noted figure in London society.-Personal life:...
, these hotels were defined by Ypma as an "exciting, stylish alternative to the dreary sameness of chain hotels and the stuffy pomposity of traditional 'grand' hotels".
Local architectural firms William Lim Associates and Tangguanbee Architects, led by architects William S.W. Lim
William S.W. Lim
William S.W. Lim, born in Hong Kong in 1932, is an architect. He graduated from the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and continued his graduate studies at Harvard University. Lim was a Fulbright Fellow in the Department of City and Regional Planning at Harvard University....
, Tang Guan Bee and Teh Joo Heng, designed the Gallery Hotel. In 1990, the developer, Robertson Quay Investments, had approached the firms' two principal architects who suggested the HIP hotel notion. Robertson Quay Investments was convinced of the viability of the concept "that reflects a new aesthetic, a different way of doing things, and that caters to a growing group of design-savvy young customers with cash to spare".
Together with the developer, the architects sought to place Gallery Hotel in the HIP class of designer hotels that intentionally fall outside the staid star rating system
Star (classification)
Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...
. The purpose was to create a specific lifestyle for the design-conscious jet setter who looks for the extraordinary. The Gallery Hotel, like other HIP hotels, strives to be more than a temporary abode
Dwelling
Dwelling, as well as being a term for a house, or for living somewhere, or for lingering somewhere, is a philosophical concept which was developed by Martin Heidegger. Dwelling is about making yourself at home where the home itself is a building that is a house...
at one's destination; it aims to be the destination itself.
The Gallery Hotel has been listed in The Phaidon Atlas Of Contemporary Architecture along with works by architects like Herzog & de Meuron
Herzog & de Meuron
Herzog & de Meuron Architekten, BSA/SIA/ETH is a Swiss architecture firm, founded and headquartered in Basel, Switzerland in 1978. The careers of founders and senior partners Jacques Herzog , and Pierre de Meuron , closely paralleled one another, with both attending the Swiss Federal Institute of...
, Frank Gehry
Frank Gehry
Frank Owen Gehry, is a Canadian American Pritzker Prize-winning architect based in Los Angeles, California.His buildings, including his private residence, have become tourist attractions...
and Tadao Ando
Tadao Ando
is a Japanese architect whose approach to architecture was once categorized by Francesco Dal Co as critical regionalism. Ando has led a storied life, working as a truck driver and boxer prior to settling on the profession of architecture, despite never having taken formal training in the field...
. It is also featured in Ypma's HIP Hotels: Budget (2001).
Pluralistic design
Conceptualised with the HIP objective in mind, the close collaborationCollaboration
Collaboration is working together to achieve a goal. It is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together to realize shared goals, — for example, an intriguing endeavor that is creative in nature—by sharing...
between the two architectural firms has resulted in a flamboyant postmodern
Postmodern architecture
Postmodern architecture began as an international style the first examples of which are generally cited as being from the 1950s, but did not become a movement until the late 1970s and continues to influence present-day architecture...
pluralistic collage
Collage
A collage is a work of formal art, primarily in the visual arts, made from an assemblage of different forms, thus creating a new whole....
of experimental building forms. The architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
of the Gallery Hotel reads like a puzzle
Puzzle
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that tests the ingenuity of the solver. In a basic puzzle, one is intended to put together pieces in a logical way in order to come up with the desired solution...
and consists of several seemingly disjointed, unrelated building forms meshed together. These forms are each disparately expressed and connected by an intuitive circulation system of internal streets, gangways and stairway
Stairway
Stairway, staircase, stairwell, flight of stairs, or simply stairs are names for a construction designed to bridge a large vertical distance by dividing it into smaller vertical distances, called steps...
s, thus giving a sense of urban
Urban area
An urban area is characterized by higher population density and vast human features in comparison to areas surrounding it. Urban areas may be cities, towns or conurbations, but the term is not commonly extended to rural settlements such as villages and hamlets.Urban areas are created and further...
complexity to the scheme. With only a narrow end fronting the Singapore River, the architects adopted the concept of creating a microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm
Macrocosm and microcosm is an ancient Greek Neo-Platonic schema of seeing the same patterns reproduced in all levels of the cosmos, from the largest scale all the way down to the smallest scale...
of the city in the restricted site, instead of a monolith
Monolith
A monolith is a geological feature such as a mountain, consisting of a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument...
ic block which might have been the typical design response.
With a total gross floor area of 14,000 square metres (150,695 square feet), the Gallery Hotel consists of a main building complex divided into three distinct parts, with a series of smaller volumes of incongruent forms interspersed around it. Secondary facilities, such as restaurant
Restaurant
A restaurant is an establishment which prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services...
s and a health club
Health club
A health club is a place which houses exercise equipment for the purpose of physical exercise.-Main workout area:...
, are located in several building forms not contained within the main complex, but surrounding and attaching themselves like prosthetics to the parent hotel block. Attached to one side of the building are three large cylindrical glass and steel structures for food and beverage
Food and Beverage
F&B is a common abbreviation in the United States and Commonwealth countries, including Hong Kong. F&B is typically the widely accepted abbreviation for "Food and Beverage", which is the sector/industry that specializes in the conceptualization, the making of, and delivery of foods...
outlets. The collage serves to enhance the building's notion of transparency and interaction
Interaction
Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect...
between the interior and exterior. The hotel's main building slab
Concrete slab
A concrete slab is a common structural element of modern buildings. Horizontal slabs of steel reinforced concrete, typically between 10 and 50 centimeters thick, are most often used to construct floors and ceilings, while thinner slabs are also used for exterior paving.In many domestic and...
is elevated above ground by sitting on a transparent glass-clad
Cladding (construction)
Cladding is the application of one material over another to provide a skin or layer intended to control the infiltration of weather elements, or for aesthetic purposes....
lobby
Lobby (room)
A lobby is a room in a building which is used for entry from the outside. Sometimes referred to as a foyer or an entrance hall.Many office buildings, hotels and skyscrapers go to great lengths to decorate their lobbies to create the right impression....
. By not adopting the traditional hermetic
Hermetic seal
A hermetic seal is the quality of being airtight. In common usage, the term often implies being impervious to air or gas. When used technically, it is stated in conjunction with a specific test method and conditions of usage.-Etymology :...
, inward-looking hotel atrium
Atrium (architecture)
In modern architecture, an atrium is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within a larger multistory building and often located immediately beyond the main entrance doors...
, the hotel offers enhanced interaction with the surrounding urban environment.
The multi-coloured Mondrian
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis "Piet" Mondriaan, after 1906 Mondrian , was a Dutch painter.He was an important contributor to the De Stijl art movement and group, which was founded by Theo van Doesburg. He evolved a non-representational form which he termed Neo-Plasticism...
-esque fenestration
Building envelope
The building envelope is the physical separator between the interior and the exterior environments of a building. Another emerging term is "Building Enclosure". It serves as the outer shell to help maintain the indoor environment and facilitate its climate control...
on the tower block juxtaposes the building's twisted cuboid
Cuboid
In geometry, a cuboid is a solid figure bounded by six faces, forming a convex polyhedron. There are two competing definitions of a cuboid in mathematical literature...
form. This gives the tower block the appearance of an oversized piece of pop art
Pop art
Pop art is an art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist's use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of fine art...
fronting Mohamad Sultan Road. These windows seem random, but have been placed to maximise the picturesque views from the hotel rooms and to protect the privacy of the hotel guests. To complete the postmodern architectural style
Architectural style
Architectural styles classify architecture in terms of the use of form, techniques, materials, time period, region and other stylistic influences. It overlaps with, and emerges from the study of the evolution and history of architecture...
, one of the building's façade
Facade
A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....
s facing Singapore River takes on a warehouse form, mirroring the simple pitched
Roof pitch
In building construction, roof pitch is a numerical measure of the steepness of a roof, and a pitched roof is a roof that is steep.The roof's pitch is the measured vertical rise divided by the measured horizontal span, the same thing as what is called "slope" in geometry. Roof pitch is typically...
roofs of the old warehouses that used to occupy the area.
The rooftop lap pool
Swimming pool
A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is a container filled with water intended for swimming or water-based recreation. There are many standard sizes; the largest is the Olympic-size swimming pool...
with its cantilever
Cantilever
A cantilever is a beam anchored at only one end. The beam carries the load to the support where it is resisted by moment and shear stress. Cantilever construction allows for overhanging structures without external bracing. Cantilevers can also be constructed with trusses or slabs.This is in...
ed glass form looking over the street, the first of its kind in Singapore, is another element in the HIP design. The Gallery Hotel, which collaborated with Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts
LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts
The LASALLE College of the Arts , formerly LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts, is an arts educational institution in Singapore. It was founded in 1984 by De La Salle brother, Brother Joseph McNally. Currently, LASALLE has design, fine arts, integrated arts, media arts and performing arts faculties...
, is also decorated with works of art, from neon lights to ashtray
Ashtray
An ashtray is a receptacle for ash and butts from cigarettes and cigars. Ashtrays are typically made of fireproof material such as glass, heat-resistant plastic, pottery, metal, or rock....
s, to engage visitors in the HIP lifestyle. Even the treatment of texture
Texture (visual arts)
In the visual arts, texture is the perceived surface quality of a work of art. It is an element of two-dimensional and three-dimensional design and is distinguished by its perceived visual and physical properties...
s is pluralistic, as seen in one of central rectilinear blocks, which is veiled by a perforated steel
Steel
Steel is an alloy that consists mostly of iron and has a carbon content between 0.2% and 2.1% by weight, depending on the grade. Carbon is the most common alloying material for iron, but various other alloying elements are used, such as manganese, chromium, vanadium, and tungsten...
screen that acts as both a climatic filter and a projection screen
Projection screen
A projection screen is an installation consisting of a surface and a support structure used for displaying a projected image for the view of an audience. Projection screens may be permanently installed, as in a movie theater; painted on the wall; or semi-permanent or mobile, as in a conference room...
.
Interior architecture
Most of the Gallery Hotel's interior decor was designed by Eva Shivdasani, a Swedish former fashion model, and Bernard Bohnenberger, from Sixth Senses Hotels and Resorts. While the Gallery Hotel's interior architecture embraces the exterior, it also reflects the surroundings through the use of materials. Metallic surfaces reflect the geometricGeometry
Geometry arose as the field of knowledge dealing with spatial relationships. Geometry was one of the two fields of pre-modern mathematics, the other being the study of numbers ....
roofs of former warehouses that occupied the area. Pipes and service
Penetrant (mechanical, electrical, or structural)
Penetrants, or penetrating items, are the mechanical, electrical or structural items that pass through an opening in a wall or floor, such as pipes, electrical conduits, ducting, cables and cable trays, or structural steel beams and columns...
s are exposed in bright primary colours. The entrance foyer
Foyer
A foyer or lobby is a large, vast room or complex of rooms adjacent to the auditorium...
consists of just an open-air space with a portable desk, like a valet parking
Valet parking
Valet parking is a parking service offered by some restaurants, stores, and other businesses, particularly in North America. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find a parking space on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a valet...
kiosk. The smallness of the lobby and the translucency between inside and outside indicate the nature of expected guests, congruent with the concept of HIP hotels not catering to large tour groups.
The Gallery Hotel has been designed as a cyber-age hotel where there is unlimited broadband Internet access. In conference rooms, instead of white-boards, metal surfaces, which form parts of the interior concept, are to be used for meetings using felt-tipped marker pen
Marker pen
thumb|MarkerA marker pen, marking pen, felt-tip pen, flow or marker, is a pen which has its own ink-source, and usually a tip made of a porous, pressed fibres; such as felt or nylon.-Permanent marker:...
s.
The fourth floor lobby features a reception desk in an open area next to a restaurant that looks like a garage
Garage (house)
A residential garage is part of a home, or an associated building, designed or used for storing a vehicle or vehicles. In some places the term is used synonymously with "carport", though that term normally describes a structure that is not completely enclosed.- British residential garages:Those...
. Other distinct items of decor include hubcap
Hubcap
A hubcap, wheel cover or wheel trim is a decorative disk on an automobile wheel that covers at least a central portion of the wheel. Cars with stamped steel wheels often use a full wheel cover that conceals the entire wheel. Cars with alloy wheels or styled steel wheels generally use smaller...
s to support bar stool
Bar stool
Bar stools are a type of tall stool, often with a foot rest, which because of their height and narrowness are designed for seating in a public house or bar...
s and sections of aluminum scaffolding
Scaffolding
Scaffolding is a temporary structure used to support people and material in the construction or repair of buildings and other large structures. It is usually a modular system of metal pipes or tubes, although it can be from other materials...
for table legs.
On the guest floors, room numbers are labelled on the floor and wire mesh newspaper racks are fitted on to the wall outside each room. Each floor features original work from the Lasalle-SIA College of the Arts, while all the rooms are individually decorated. The sleeping arrangements of guests were even taken into account during the architectural design: Single-bedded rooms, for individuals and couples, have translucent glass panes instead of solid walls separating bathroom and bedroom. There are also exclusive women's floors where even male staff are not allowed.