Pioneer Architect Lim Chong Keat

As an architect, Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat considers himself to be a comprehensivist and universalist, like his contemporary R. Buckminster Fuller. He even used a geodesic dome, called Dewan Tunku, to encompass a multi-use hall in his Komtar tower.

 

Read more about his influence on the built environment of post-independent Singapore here.

 

Lim Chong Keat (b. 1930) is probably not a name that is familiar to the younger generation of architects and architectural students in Singapore today. But Lim is undoubtedly a very significant architect in post-independent Singapore’s architectural history. Educated at the University of Manchester and MIT, Lim was the principal architect behind many of the most significant buildings completed in the 1960s and 1970s, such as the Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House (completed in 1965 under Malayan Architects Co-partnership with his partners Chen Voon Fee and William Lim), Malaysia Singapore Airlines (completed in 1969 under Architects Team 3) and Jurong Town Hall Building(completed in 1974 under Architects Team 3). Besides being a prominent practitioner, Lim was also an influential teacher who taught the first few batches of architectural graduates at the Singapore Polytechnic. Among his students were Tay Kheng Soon, Tan Cheng Siong and Wee Chwee Heng. Internationally, Lim also played important roles at the Commonwealth Association of Architects (CAA) and ARCASIA. He was the chairman of the Commonwealth Board of Architectural Education (CBAE), which was part of the CAA, in the 1970s and a founding member of ARCASIA.