圣约瑟夫教堂修复项目丨新加坡丨ONG&ONG

Architect：ONG&ONG

Location：Victoria Street, Singapore; | ;View Map

Project Year：2024

Category：Churches

St Joseph’s Church traces its roots to the 1500s, when Malacca was conquered by Alfonso de Albuquerque and came under Portuguese rule. The resulting Eurasian community gradually spread throughout Southeast Asia, including Singapore. Starting with just 12 Catholics in 1825 under the Diocese of Macau, the congregation swelled to over 1,300 by the turn of the 20th century.

The present St. Joseph's Church building dates from 1912 and was gazetted as a National Monument of Singapore in 2005. Seen from above, it takes the form of a Latin cross, and its design is based on a Neo-Gothic style, with construction undertaken by Riley Hargreaves & Co. By 2017, having seen more than a century of continuous use - interspersed with several minor renovations - the building was in dire need of thorough restoration.

This process involved multiple stakeholders, including the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Singapore, the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) and National Heritage Board (NHB). ONG&ONG was appointed to manage the mammoth project, which saw experts from as far afield as Europe flown in and consulted on the conservation of important features and artifacts.

Constructed atop marine clay, settlement over the decades meant that the building's structure had shifted. In particular, its roof trusses were found to be inclining between three and five degrees towards the south. These had to be set straight, restored or replaced. The sagging cantilevered choir loft was replaced with one that is under-girded by a steel frame. The ground slab was also cracked and slanted. It had to be reconstructed and realigned.

In line with contemporary requirements, after crucial structural works were carried out to secure the building and its walls were re-plastered, re-bars and a waterproofing membrane were installed to stabilise and secure the ground slab.

The church's unique features and contents required thorough cleaning and refinishing. This included all the statuary and its many remarkable stained-glass windows, fabricated by Jules Dobbeklare, a Belgian who also designed the stained glass inside the chapel at CHIJMES (an earlier ONG&ONG conservation project).

St. Joseph's Church also has a high altar of white and coloured Italian marble. During its cleaning and polishing, the marble was found to have a unique pink shade. Another rediscovered feature is a mural of fleur-de-lis motifs dating from 1912 - the lily having strong associations with St. Joseph. Wooden fittings such as the original teak ambo (akin to a pulpit) and worshipers' pews were all sanded down and re-stained, while around 60% of the original encaustic floor tiles were restored, with the rest replaced.

In addition to the restoration, O&O undertook the challenging task of modernizing the building while preserving its historically significant architectural elements. This included installing air conditioning in the church hall and ensuring the monument met contemporary fire codes. For example, Dormer windowswere reintroduced into the church roof based on archival photographs of the building, and these now function as external smoke vents in the event of a fire.

Being a heritage site, information plaques have been added to highlight key points of interest in and around the church. Greenery was also planted around the church compound. A subtle landscaping scheme of trees and shrubs enhances the external ornamentation of nature in the decorative relief work and carvings found in the building. Worshippers can also find niches within the landscape for contemplation and prayer; at a reflective pool by the church entrance, as well as an area with benches facing a grotto shaded by willowy trees.

All in, the restoration of St. Joseph's Church took five years, including delays in part due to the pandemic. Nonetheless, worshippers and heritage lovers alike all agree that the end result was well worth the wait.

Team:

Architecture, Landscape: ONG&ONG

Client: St Joseph’s Church

Photography: Alex Heng

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