BIBLE HOUSE

Finalist in the World Architecture Festival 2013 - Religion category

The Bible Society of Singapore seeks to make the bible available, accessible and credible, through its bible distribution and education programmes.

The Bible House was designed as a replacement of the previous aging building, to add additional floor area as well as to regularize the previous low ceiling heights. We took advantage of the steep topography to create two parking levels, each with its own ingress/egress, thus dedicating the basement level to ancillary space.

The site is uniquely shaped and thus effectively has only two facades. Inspired by the bible, we designed the building to have two sides, one representing the old testament and the other the new. The old testament wall is primarily a plaster and paint finish with tear-shaped windows whilst the new testament is represented by a clean curtain-walled façade.

A red wall splices the entire building along the circulation route, symbolizing the blood shed by Jesus Christ’s death of the cross.