Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) is the new civic and community institution for promoting traditional and contemporary Chinese arts and culture.

Adopting a clean and subtle design approach, it was planned as a respectful complement to its architecturally striking neighbour, the Singapore Conference Hall – a landmark gazetted as a national monument and home to the Singapore Chinese Orchestra – while quietly asserting itself through its programmatic functions and planning. Seen as a cultural hub for the Chinese community, both buildings form a distinctive synergy through their programmes.

Structurally, SCCC obeys a framework of columns that parallels the modularity of traditional Chinese architecture in which important buildings have a three-tier division. From the ground plane, a two-storey ‘urban living room’ forms the base that connects to the city. A podium, expressed as a ‘solid rock’, is layered to support respective floor slabs and titled at various angles to create texture. Various pocket gardens and sky terraces, designed by DP Green, are positioned where the ‘rock’ splits within the podium to mimic the greenery growing in rock fissures depicted in Chinese landscape paintings. The glass-box crown positioned atop the podium. It is where cultural performances and activities are held.

The architecture is modern with its contemporary façade yet respectful of traditional Chinese architectural convention; effectively expressing SCCC as a conduit for interactions across socio-cultural environments.