Parliament House

The Parliament House of Singapore is a public building and cultural landmark and houses the Parliament of Singapore. It is located in the Civic District of the Downtown Core within Singapore's central business district (the Central Area). Within its vicinity is Raffles Place, which lies across it from Singapore River, and the Supreme Court's building across the road. The building was designed to represent a contemporary architectural expression of stateliness and authority. The prism-shaped top, designed by the late former president Ong Teng Cheong, was similarly a modernist take on the traditional dome. Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... Image File history File links Please see the file description page for further information. ... The politics of Singapore is based on a unitary state with a Westminister system of parliamentary government. ... The Downtown Core is technically an urban planning area in the city-state of Singapore which surrounds the mouth of the Singapore River, and is part of the Central Area, Singapores central business district. ... Jump to: navigation, search Downtown Honolulu in Hawaii, United States, an example of an urban downtown district Central business district (CBD) and downtown are terms referring to the commercial heart of a city. ... The Central Area is the collective term for a group of financial and commercial districts in centre of Singapore which was previously otherwise known as the Central Business District and was renamed to accommodate the expanded function of the area. ... Raffles Place is the financial heart of Singapore. ... The Singapore River is a small river in terms of physical attributes, but of extreme historical importance to the country of Singapore, the political entity which shares its name. ... The existing Supreme Court building houses the Supreme Court of Singapore, where it commenced operations on 20 June 2005 after more than 65 years at its old premises. ... Jump to: navigation, search A state is an organized political community occupying a definite territory, having an organized government, and possessing internal and external sovereignty. ... In politics, authority generally refers to the ability to make laws, independent of the power to enforce them, or the ability to permit something. ... In geometry, a prism is a polyhedron made of two parallel copies of some polygonal base joined by faces that are rectangles or parallelograms. ... Ong Teng Cheong (王鼎昌, Wáng Dǐngchāng) (January 22, 1936 - February 8, 2002) was the first elected President of Republic of Singapore. ...

Planning and construction

The space constraints faced by the Old Parliament House were felt since the early 1980s, when the members of parliament grew from 51 in 1963 to 75 in 1983, a point made by then Leader of the House, Edmund William Barker during a parliamentary debate on 16 March 1983. The old building has been renovated several times to accommodate the demand for space, but there was a limit as to how much the building could be widened without disrupting the Chamber's configuration and causing discomfort to its members. The debate concluded in 1989, when the idea to build a new parliament house was accepted. Jump to: navigation, search Parliament House The Old Parliament House (Chinese: 前国会大厦), also known as the Arts House at the Old Parliament, is a building in Singapore gazetted as a national monument on 14 February 1992. ... Jump to: navigation, search // Events and trends The 1980s marked an abrupt shift towards more conservative lifestyles after the momentous cultural revolutions which took place in the 1960s and 1970s and the definition of the AIDS virus in 1981. ... The following is a historical list of members for the current and past nine Parliaments of Singapore External references Members of Parliament Categories: Singaporean Members of Parliament | Government of Singapore | Politics of Singapore | Singaporean politicians | Singapore-related lists ... Jump to: navigation, search 1963 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The office of Leader of the House in the Government of Australia exists in order for the management of government business, involving the order in which Government issues are to be dealt with, which Government members will speak, tactical matters in reaction to impediments to such management; negotiates with the... Jump to: navigation, search March 16 is the 75th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (76th in Leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1983 is a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The project started in earnest in May 1989, when a project team was formed to design and build the new house. Headed by Liu Thai Ker, CEO and Chief Planner of the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), it comprised of architects and engineers from the URA and the Public Works Department (PWD). Various designs were put forth by PWD architects for the new site next to the existing parliament house, led by PWD Director Chua Hua Meng and Deputy Director Lee Kut Cheung. Jump to: navigation, search 1989 is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and one of the departments under the Government of Singapore. ...

In 1992, the project was approved by the government with a budget of S$148.2 million. The following year, the Committee on the Parliament Complex Development Project was established, headed by the Speaker of Parliament Tan Soo Khoon, and with Wong Kan Seng, Lee Boon Yang, and Lim Hng Kiang as its members. Tasked to liaise with architects in the planning and construction of the building, the committee members also went on two overseas study missions to gather ideas which may be incorporated into the building's design. The first trip was made to Australia, where visits were made to the newly-built Parliament House in canberra. Here, extensive attention paid to public education of the parliamentary system in the form of galleries, moot parliaments, as well as research materials was particularly noted. Jump to: navigation, search 1992 was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... Wong Kan Seng Wong Kan Seng (Simplified Chinese:黄根成; born 1946) is the Minister for Home Affairs in Singapore. ... Jump to: navigation, search Parliament House Canberra: The main entrance and the flag Parliament House is the name given to two purpose-built buildings in Canberra, the capital of Australia, where the Parliament of Australia has met since 1927. ... Jump to: navigation, search Canberra is the capital of the Commonwealth of Australia and, with a population of just over 323,000, is also Australias largest inland city. ...

Visits were also made to other legislative buildings in Australia, while a second trip was made to Europe, where some of the oldest buildings are situated. The contrast was deliberate, such that the committee could look at older, traditional ideas as well as those in newer contemporary ones to flesh out possible ideas for the new Singaporean building. With these ideas incorporated, the new building's concept plan was approved by the Cabinet in 1994. Construction began in 1995 under the direction of PWD Director Chua Hua Meng and Deputy Director Tan Chee Wee, and was completed in July 1999 at a cost of S$115.2 million. World map showing Europe (geographically) When considered a continent, Europe is the worlds second-smallest continent in terms of area, with an area of 10,600,000 km² (4,140,625 square miles), making it larger than Australia only. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1994 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International year of the Family. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1995 was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ...

On 6 September 1999, the flag of Singapore was lowered for the last time at the old Parliament House, before the ceremonial "walk over" was conducted to the new building. Led by the Speaker of Parliament and the Prime Minister, the entourage of MPs walked along Parliament Place, a renamed segment of High Street, before reaching the new Parliament House where the flag was unfurled and hoisted with the national anthem being played. The entourage then filed into the new Chamber, where the parliamentary debate resumed. On 4 October 1999, the building was officially opened with a simple ceremony held at the building's foyer, where a stainless steel plaque was unveiled before 500 MPs and invited guests. September 6 is the 249th day of the year (250th in leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... Flag ratio: 2:3. ... Ilfracombe High Street, Devon, England High Street, or the High Street is the generic name (and frequently the official name) of the business street of towns or cities in the United Kingdom . ... Jump to: navigation, search October 4 is the 277th day of the year (278th in Leap years). ... Jump to: navigation, search 1999 is a common year starting on Friday Anno Domini (or the Current Era), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... ... The pinnacle of New Yorks Chrysler Building is clad with stainless steel In metallurgy, stainless steel (inox) is defined as a ferrous alloy with a minimum of 10. ...

Architecture

The new Parliament House was designed by the Public Works Department, and comprises of three new blocks integrated with an existing restored building built in 1864 and which once housed the Attorney-General's Chambers. This block was gazetted as a national monument on 14 February 1992. The building was built not only as a venue for parliamentary debates, but also a research centre and meeting place for the members of parliament (MPs), as well as a place of interest for students and the general public. Jump to: navigation, search 1864 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... The Preservation of Monuments Board (PMB), a statutory board under the Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts (MICA), has so far gazetted 54 buildings and structures in Singapore as the National Monuments of Singapore. ... Jump to: navigation, search February 14 is the 45th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Jump to: navigation, search 1992 was a leap year starting on Wednesday. ... The following is a historical list of members for the current and past nine Parliaments of Singapore External references Members of Parliament Categories: Singaporean Members of Parliament | Government of Singapore | Politics of Singapore | Singaporean politicians | Singapore-related lists ...

Due to its setting in the richly historical area, the building's overall design harks back to its more historical neighbours with its slate grey external colour scheme and liberal use of accentuated columns reflective of the colonnade design common in classical architecture. In classical architecture, a colonnade denotes a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, as in the famous elliptically curving colonnades that Bernini added to the facade of Saint Peters Basilica in Rome, which embrace and define the Piazza. ... From the point of view of modern times, the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean sometimes seem to blend smoothly into one melange we call the Classical. ...

The main entrance from North Bridge Road is preceded by a grand ceremonial driveway flanked by palm trees, an iconic tree perculiar to the tropical region and complimented by fountain pools. The building's grand foyer is toped by the timber atrium, seen from the outside as the building's signature prism-shaped pinnacle. Genera Many; see list of Arecaceae genera Arecaceae (also known as Palmae or Palmaceae), the palm family, is a family of flowering plants, belonging to the monocot order Arecales. ... The tropics are the geographic region of the Earth centered on the equator and limited in latitude by the two tropics: the Tropic of Cancer in the north and the Tropic of Capricorn in the southern hemisphere. ... ... Timber Timber is a term used to describe wood throughout its processing from the time it is planned for use in industrial products to the time it is used as a structural material or in other industrial product, such as wood pulp for paper production. ... Looking up inside the 32-story atrium of the Shanghai Grand Hyatt, part of the Jin Mao Building. ...

The new Chamber continues to adopt the Westminster style, as was the case in the old parliament. With 100 seats and room for 20 more, it features contemporary IT features like an electronic voting system, an integrated congress system, IT terminals and so on. Generous space is devoted to the Strangers' Gallery and the Press Gallery, allowing for more members of the public to observe proceedings. In addition, a new sound-proofed Educational Gallery was built on the top floor of the chamber allowing for staff and teachers to verbally explain live parliamentary proceedings to students, as well as a moot parliament, history corner, and multimedia information kiosks to provide a full educational programme, as is the case in the Parliament House in Canberra. Politics—see Chambers of parliament Firearms—see Chamber (weaponry) Heart chamber Combustion chamber Marvel Comics —see Chamber (comics) The Chamber was a short-lived game show on FOX. The Chamber is a suspense novel by John Grisham. ... The Westminster System is a democratic system of government modelled after that of the United Kingdom system, as used in the Palace of Westminster, the location of the UK parliament. ... Jump to: navigation, search Parliament House Canberra: The main entrance and the flag Parliament House is the name given to two purpose-built buildings in Canberra, the capital of Australia, where the Parliament of Australia has met since 1927. ... Jump to: navigation, search Canberra is the capital of the Commonwealth of Australia and, with a population of just over 323,000, is also Australias largest inland city. ...

Also part of the new building are a 170-seat auditorium, a library, range of meeting and IT rooms and media facilities, a dining room, a 100-seat public cafeteria and even a gymnasium. Carparking is available below ground, leaving much valuable space above to include lush landscaping and a 2,770 square metre garden. One of a number of cafeterias at Electronic City campus, Infosys Technologies Ltd. ... Gymnasium can have following meanings: Gymnasium (ancient Greece)—an educational and sporting institution in Ancient Greece Gymnasium—a school of secondary education found in several European countries (approx. ...

References

• Tan, Sumiko (2000) The Singapore Parliament: The House We Built Times Media, Singapore ISBN 9812321446