The Armenians have a long storied history in Singapore and the region. Armenians were one of the first communities to set up their homes and business in early 19th century East India Company Singapore. Their church, the Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator was established in 1835 and is the oldest standing building in Singapore.
For two centuries the small Armenian community – never amounting to more than 100 people at any one time – contributed to the phenomenal growth of the trading settlements, and many of their legacies remain today. Three of the most recognizable Singapore’s icons – the National Flower Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid, The Straits Times newspaper, and Raffles Hotel – were founded or created by the Armenians.
The Armenian Heritage Gallery is located the historical parsonage. Built in 1906, it is one of the few remaining bungalow houses of the Edwardian era in the city. Two galleries showcase the long history of the Armenian homeland, the diaspora, genocide, and the community’s involvement and contribution in Singapore.
Inspired by the gravitas of the orthodox triptych, and muted in tone and lighting, the mixed content of text graphics and artefacts takes visual center-stage. Anthropomorphic alphabet clustered around the triptych corners echo the relief of the khachkar and balance the sombre content with colour and delight.
To complement the permanent gallery is an interactive Armenian alphabet learning board, and a lounge recreating the turn of the 20th century parsonage, that functions as a social event space for the current Singaporean-Armenian community.
Client Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator Singapore
Duration 10 months, completed June 2018
Project Team
Project Team - Lim Chen Sian, Cheah Fang Leah, Pierre Hennes, Edwin Chua
Research & Content Creators - Lim Chen Sian
Interior & Joinery Design - Cheah Fang Leah
Graphic Design - Cheah Fang Leah
Fabrication - E.Works
Photography - Ung Ruey Loon
Project Description
The Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre showcases the disparate memories and stories of the Indian Muslim community in Singapore. Housed within the former memorial to the Saint of Nagore, Shahul Hamid, the building is modeled after the principal shrine in Nagore, Tamil Nadu, India. Albeit a National Monument, over the years it had fallen into disrepair and closed. It was eventually renovated by the Indian Muslim community in 2009.
The adaptive re-use of the Nagore Dargah Shrine into an Indian-Muslim heritage gallery is of historical and religious significance to Singapore's Indian-Muslim community. It also represents the next chapter in Singapore’s exciting architectural legacy - a national monument building receives new life by opening itself to the public, to stay relevant to the contemporary generation and the ongoing nation story.
Project Details
From inception to operation, the FORTH team crafted the initial feasibility studies, focus group surveys, community interviews, organised the public appeal for artifacts and stories, academic research, curatorial development, scripting, artifact conservation and collection management, and design and gallery construction.
Client Nagore Dargah Management Committee in collaboration with MUIS and Banquet
Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre
Duration 8 months
Completed May 2011
Project Team
Project Leaders - Lim Chen Sian and Cheah Fang Leah
Artifact Conservation - Lawrence Chin and Claire Lim
Copy Editing - Naseer Ghani, Raj Mohammad, Dorothy Cheong
Interior & Joinery Design - Cheah Fang Leah, Lim Chen Sian, Junae Jenkinson
Historical Researcher - Torsten Tschacher
Graphic Design - Cheah Fang Leah, Lim Chen Sian
Illustration - Aaron Kao
Photography - Ung Ruey Loon and Team, Cheah Fang Leah
Project/Research Assistants - Felicia Ang, Divya Jagtiani, Christabel Khoo, Lim Tse Siang, Eunice Sim, and Tan Rui Qing.
Contractor & Fabrication - Kingsmen International
Project Description
The Raffles Archives Museum and Memorial Garden project recognises the accumulated history of Singapore's first school, Raffles Institution, originating four years after the colony's founding in 1823.
The primary functions of this archives museum is to proactively source for artefacts, conduct archival & research activities, host relevant exhibitions and alumni gatherings. Towards that aim, the design consciously overlaps a permanent exhibition with an activity hub and event spaces.
The museum emerges at a poignant time when the Raffles family of schools reunite in their Bishan campus, with a long-term trajectory for a campus heritage masterplan. This project lays the first track towards that realisation.
Project Details
Located in the Yusof Ishak (main admin) block, the Raffles Archives Museum and Memorial Garden are conjoined by a conceptual circle arcing through both areas, establishing the presence of a larger precinct by reducing the delineation between interior and exterior space.
The project also manifests a long-awaited 'living museum' for the institution that sources relevant artefacts and school-life stories from living alumni, contextualises and exhibits this content as part of current students' experiential learning and their connection with the broader alumni.
The contemporary backdrop amalgamates the intentional upcycling of antiquated school noticeboards and cabinets, to be populated with student work in both physical and digital media. The temporary exhibition area get maximum 'shop frontage' along the glazed corridor, while a 'joinery henge' arcs in domino arrangement from the main atrium, through the museum and into the memorial garden.
Client Raffles Archives Museum, Raffles Institution
Duration 14 months. Completion & soft-opening in March 2014
Project Team
Client Representatives - Cheryl Yap, Dominic Chua, Ng Kok Ching
Project Leaders - Lim Chen Sian, Cheah Fang Leah
Research & Content Creators - Dr Kevin Tan, Lim Chen Sian
Project/Research Assistants - Michael Eng, Christabel Khoo
Copy Editing - Cheryl Yap, Dominic Chua, Jai Singh, Lim Chen Sian
Artifact Conservation - Lawrence Chin, Claire Lim, Lim Chen Sian
Interior & Joinery Design - Cheah Fang Leah, Adam Pustola
Landscape Design - Noelle Teh, Cheah Fang Leah
Graphic Design - Jos Tan, Cheah Fang Leah
Museum Contractor & Fabrication - Pico Art P/L
Garden Contractor & Planting - RI Estate & TCL
Project Details
Located in the Yusof Ishak (main admin) block, the Raffles Archives Museum and Memorial Garden are conjoined by a conceptual circle arcing through both areas, establishing the presence of a larger precinct by reducing the delineation between interior and exterior space.
Passing through an arbour dressed in Bauhinia Kockiana and Cassia Fistula, the memorial garden is a choreographed venn-diagram of outdoor classrooms - containing a sundial in memory of the garden's donor, learning courtyards and plant beds to serve teaching by adjacent Science & Biology Labs, and informal seating as respite from nearby classrooms and staff rooms.
Client Raffles Archives Museum, Raffles Institution
Duration 14 months. Completion & soft-opening in March 2014
Project Team
Client Representatives - Cheryl Yap, Dominic Chua, Ng Kok Ching
Project Leaders - Lim Chen Sian, Cheah Fang Leah
Research & Content Creators - Dr Kevin Tan, Lim Chen Sian
Artifact Conservation - Lawrence Chin, Claire Lim, Lim Chen Sian
Landscape Design - Noelle Teh, Cheah Fang Leah
Garden Contractor & Planting - RI Estate & Noelle Teh
The Creative Design Space at NAFA is a philanthropic endeavour by book publisher and distributor APD to allow design students and professionals free access to a comfortable library of reference books focused around the arts. The resource centre was opened to the public in 2010.
All the existing furniture from its past life as a fashion runway space was recycled as display pedestals, exhibition panels, or catwalk platforms. In addition to its primary function as a resource library, APD and NAFA envisioned the space to also showcase student works, and perform as a communal event venue. As such, the shelving joinery were designed to be mobile interlocking mobiles, which combine together into half its footprint to provide more event space.
Client APD Singapore, in collaboration with Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA)
Duration 3 months
Completed November 2010
Project Team
Cheah Fang Leah and Lim Chen Sian
Exhibition Description
February 2012 marked the 70th anniversary of the fall of Singapore, an event so tumultuous that Winston Churchill spoke of it as the “worst disaster and largest capitulation of British history”.
Some of the most ferocious fighting during the Battle of Singapore took place amidst the well-manicured lawns of a quiet suburb in Bukit Timah. At Adam Park, the Cambridgeshires – a novice British infantry battalion – was thrown into the thick of fighting in the epic conflict. Miraculously, for four grueling days the Cambridgeshires held their ground and stood firm against the elite Japanese 41st Regiment’s onslaught, fighting until finally ordered by the High Command to lay down their arms.
'Four Days In February: Adam Park the Last Battle' is the story of the Cambridgeshires’ valiant defence during the final days leading to the surrender.
Project Description
The exhibition was designed around the findings from the archaeological investigations at Adam Park and inspired by the infantry defense trenches and topography of the estate.
This formal abstraction juxtaposes between a prominent hill as an attack objective, and a defensive network of trenches and foxholes. Driven by the theme of history 'alive and buried' in topography - on approach, the visitor is presented with a sculpted yet impersonal landmass, and the researched content is revealed upon entering the excavated trenches, explicit along the scraped walls.
Storytelling occurs at four linear chronological scales: the macro world at war in 1942, Britain's defense and Japanese offense island-wide across Singapore leading up to the surrender, daily accounts from 12th to 15th February 1942 surrounding Adam Park, and an hourly blow-by-blow soldier's account.
The strong use of vivid illustrations and graphics recreate uniforms and insignias, weapons, battle scenes and tactics, is blended with the visceral display of artifacts found on the Adam Park site. Completing the retelling of this incredible battle are two walls of remembrance listing the names of British and Japanese soldiers who lost their lives in the struggle for Adam Park.
Loan of Images & Artifacts
Keith Bettany, Lim Shao Bin, Imperial War Museum, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, National University of Singapore and Sentosa Development Corporation
Client Singapore Heritage Society & National Heritage Board
In collaboration with National Library Singapore
Duration Design, Fabrication & Installation - 2.5 months.
Completed February 2012. Exhibition duration 5 months, from February to June 2012.
Project Team
Project Leaders - Lim Chen Sian and Cheah Fang Leah
Curatorship - Lim Chen Sian, Jon Cooper, Kevin Tan and Cheah Fang Leah
Exhibition Design - Cheah Fang Leah, Rafael Sampaio Rocha and Lim Chen Sian
Graphic Design - Jos Tan
Illustration - Aaron Kao
Artifact Conservation - Lawrence Chin, Claire Lim, Chiam Zhi Quan, Mariana Almeida D’Eça, Leong Chao Yang, Yong Taisi
Photography - Ung Ruey Loon, Cheah Fang Leah
Contractor & Fabrication - Kingsmen International
Exhibition Description
The fall of Singapore in February 1942 resulted in some 130,000 Allied soldiers, sailors and airmen laying down their arms and marched into captivity. Along with them, over 3,000 civilians were incarcerated as enemy nationals at Changi gaol.
Amongst the internees was William Haxworth who sketched and painted hundreds of images depicting scenes of imprisonment. Albeit an amateur, Haxworth was a remarkable artist. He had a keen eye and a necessary sense of humour. Through his 300 odd works, he attempted different styles in order to capture his subjects in different moods, often with slivers of wit. Some of his most impressive works are the full colour scenes of Changi prison, and his fascinating breadth of portraits of fellow internees.
Haxworth managed to portray humanity as it was during those hard years, and put a face to the otherwise faceless thousands who were confined. The exhibition collectively presents for the first time the amazing art of William Haxworth celebrating the triumphant of the human spirit in one of the darkest periods of the 20th century.
Project Description
'Images of Internment: The Eye and Art of William Haxworth' is the curatorial follow-up to the Adam Park exhibition, and deals with the tumultuous aftermath of the fall of Singapore - life as a Prisoner of War under the Japanese regime.
Juxtaposing themes of hope and hopelessness, the standalone form is a metaphoric cross between the cruciform plan associated with western ecclesiastical architecture and the notable prison archetype, the panopticon. A subtle gradient to the floor invokes an uphill march to enter the 'X' and a downhill stroll to leave.
Walls lean inwards on entry and outwards on exit to heighten one's spatial sense of claustrophobia versus agoraphobia, and the chiaroscuro of cold darkness contrasted with the illuminated warmth of Haxworth sketches, to impose and retell that physiological disjunction between the trapped body and a freed mind.
As a personal activity of escapism and living in the moment, Haxworth's pieces of bystander art document the broad spectrum of human experience and emotion under internment and in spite of it - grouped and displayed along intersecting axes, clashed and melded with each other. The visitor is forced to seek correlations amongst a vignette series of activities, locations, personalities, moods, and guess the artist's thoughts behind each portrayal.
Client Singapore Heritage Society & National Heritage Board
In collaboration with National Library Singapore
Duration 2.5 months
Completed February 2012. Exhibition duration from February to June 2012
Project Team
Project Leaders - Lim Chen Sian and Cheah Fang Leah
Curatorship - Lim Chen Sian, Kevin Tan, Cheah Fang Leah
Exhibition Design - Cheah Fang Leah, Lim Chen Sian
Graphic Design - Cheah Fang Leah, Rafael Sampaio Rocha
Artifact Conservation - Lawrence Chin, Claire Lim, Lim Chen Sian
Photography - Ung Ruey Loon, Cheah Fang Leah
Contractor & Fabrication - Kingsmen International
Project Description
In March 2013, the Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre decided to revamp its Second Hall into a gallery and event space. With the Outer Hall saturated with artefacts and historical data, the Second Hall is future-focused towards the community's need for a multipurpose event and gallery space.
FORTH collaborated with a team of Indian Muslim youths Raja Mohamad, Basir Amir, Amir Tahir and Nisha Naseer, and Muhammad Raj Umar to conceptualise the gallery design, and is responsible for the academic research, curatorial development, and overseeing the design documentation and gallery construction.
Project Details
Bridging the Outer Hall with the Inner Chamber, the Second Hall comprises a mural wall tracing the Indian Muslim diaspora; thematic information panels elaborating on religion, education and mercantilism; interspersed with a small community-managed coffee stand.
A topography of textured & tonal planes intentionally floating over each other denotes the regional presence of the Indian Muslim community in our digital age - materially derived from but in contrast to the Outer Hall's dark cabinets bearing historical heft.
Client Nagore Dargah Indian Muslim Heritage Centre
Duration 10 months, Ongoing
Project Team
Project Team - Raja Mohamad, Amir Azhar, Basir Amir, Nisha Naseer, Muhammad Raj Umar, Lim Chen Sian, Cheah Fang Leah
Research & Content Creators - Nisha Naseer, Muhammad Raj Umar and Lim Chen Sian
Interior & Joinery Design - Basir Amir, Cheah Fang Leah
Graphic Design - Cheah Fang Leah
Contractor & Fabrication - FirstSight P/L
Client Cathedral of the Good Shepherd Singapore
Duration 8 months, completed February 2017
Project Team
Project Team - Msgr Heng, Jevon Liew, Daniel Lee, Anne Kingsley, Rachel Choo, Anne Markley, Lim Chen Sian, Cheah Fang Leah
Research & Content Creators - Lim Chen Sian
Interior & Joinery Design - Cheah Fang Leah
Graphic & Wayfinding Design - Cheah Fang Leah
Fabrication - Pico
Project Description
The newly inaugurated Singapore University of Technology & Design required a centerpiece installation for their temporary campus to exemplify their mission of incubating innovative design. As the primary communal resource space on campus, the central library presented the ideal venue for this design exercise.
FORTH explored two joinery varieties.
The first, a gravity-defiant helicoidal fan type that challenges the conventional notions of display frontage and reader access. The form also demonstrates the ironic counteraction of dead load failure by increasing live load - it is less likely to topple over as more books weigh it down.
The second type was an artistic exercise inspired by the abstraction of agate slices and coral-like morphological regrowth, and based on the structural loading gymnastic of the corner wall detail at Carlo Scarpa's Brion family complex.
The varieties share a lively and permutating palette of coloured gradients on white; and as mobile structures with permeable visibility, defined a mix of spontaneous group-work and intimate media-viewing spaces.
Client Singapore University of Technology & Design (Temporary Campus)
Duration 3 months
Completed September 2011
Project Team
Project Design Leader - Cheah Fang Leah
Student Design Assistants - Amos Chia and Jessie Tang
Client Armenian Apostolic Church of St. Gregory the Illuminator Singapore
Duration design package completed October 2016
Project Team
Project Team - Cheah Fang Leah
