Lim Chong Keat

Lim Chong Keat (b. 22 December 1930, Penang¹ –) is a prominent architect and a polymath interested and skilled in art, music, ethnography and botany. Among his building projects in Singapore, he is best known for the Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House, and Jurong Town Hall, which were gazetted as national monuments in 2010 and 2015 respectively.

Education and career
After attending the Penang Free School,² Lim studied architecture at the University of Manchester, where he was the first Asian to win the Commonwealth Fund Fellowship for British university graduates.³ He then pursued a master’s degree in architectural acoustics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.⁴ Lim returned to Malaya from his studies in 1958.

Teaching career in Singapore (1958–59)
Lim helped establish Singapore's first School of Building and Architecture at Singapore Polytechnic in 1958 and set up diploma courses, which were later converted to degree courses in 1964. The programme was transferred to the new Faculty of Architecture in the University of Singapore in 1969.⁵  A teacher at the polytechnic for two years, Lim influenced the pioneer batches of architectural students, especially Tay Kheng Soon, who later became a prominent architect, and Tan Cheng Siong, who designed the horseshoe-shaped Pearl Bank Apartments in 1976.⁶

Architectural career (1960–95)
In 1960, Lim cofounded the Malayan Architects Co-partnership with William Lim and Chen Voon Fee. The firm distinguished itself for its “uncompromising modern design and deep sensitivity to local climate and context.”⁷ The firm won the first open design competition for the high-profile Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House project in 1962.⁸

In 1967, the firm was dissolved due to differences between its partners,⁹ and Lim founded Architects Team 3,¹⁰ which won the bid for the Jurong Town Hall project in 1969.¹¹ During the 1960s and 1970s, the firm designed numerous buildings, such as the Malaysia Singapore Airlines building (1967), to which they added innovative elements like a roof garden, podium and solar shading designs. Apart from designing residential homes, the firm also designed the United Overseas Bank building (1974) and the Development Bank of Singapore building (1975).¹² The firm was involved in designing the KOMTAR project (1988) in Penang, a 65-storey tower that took 15 years to complete, and the Negeri Sembilan State Mosque (1967).¹³

Both Singapore Conference Hall and Trade Union House, and Jurong Town Hall were gazetted as national monuments in 2010 and 2015 respectively.¹⁴

Teaching career in the UK (1995–2004)
After retiring from practice in 1995, Lim returned to teaching as visiting professor at the University of Manchester (1995–2004) and Quatercentenary Visiting Fellow at Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge (1995).¹⁵

Ethnographical research
Lim was the honorary director of the Southeast Asian Cultural Programme (SEACURP) when it started in 1981 at the then Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.¹⁶ He continued the ethnographical research of the late American architect Dorothy Pelzer (1915–72), who had documented traditional dwellings and ways of life in nine Southeast Asian countries between 1962 to 1970. When she passed away in 1972, she left behind a sizable collection of black-and-white negatives and photographs, colour slides and notes.¹⁷ Lim carried out Pelzer’s wish for him to continue her research, because of his training as an architect and their shared concern for traditional housing.¹⁸ Lim curated the exhibition “Habitat in Southeast Asia – a Pictorial Survey of Folk Architecture”, which ran in November 1986 and was organised by the Art National Gallery Kuala Lumpur and SEACURP.¹⁹

Art contributions
Lim sings arias and plays the viola, piano and harpischord. He also paints and sculpts.²⁰ He supported Margaret Leng Tan, a pianist and a leading figure in experimental music works, by organising a concert and live recording album of her performance.²¹

He proposed and supported the establishment of Alpha Gallery (1971–88) in 1971.²² The artist-run cooperative gallery at Alexandra Avenue encouraged exchange between artists, poets, cultural policymakers and architects and also held contemporary art exhibitions.²³

Lim collaborated with his longtime friend and renowned American inventor and visionary Richard Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) on several projects: Campuan meetings in Bali and Penang from 1976 to 1983;²⁴ construction of the KOMTAR geodesic dome (1973) in George Town, Penang, designed by Fuller;²⁵ and an exhibition and a book launch for Fuller’s Synergetics Folio: A Collection of 10 Posters and An Introductory Essay at the Alpha Gallery.²⁶ In the 1970s, Lim introduced the works of peasant painters from Penestanan Ubud Bali into Alpha Gallery.²⁷

Botanical interests
Around the late 1980s, before his retirement, Lim began to dedicate his time to the study of palms and gingers in Malaysia as a self-taught botanist. By 2012, he had named about 26 new species of palms, more than 35 species of gingers, and a new endemic genus, Kedhalia. To promote knowledge of native plants, he established a botanical journal, Folia Malaysiana, in 2000, which publishes contributions from botanists in Malaysia and the region.²⁸ He designed a private conservation garden, known as Suriana Botanic Conservation Gardens at Balik Pulau, to house his collection of local rare and endangered palm and ginger species in one of the two geodesic domes. Lim was also chairman of the board of the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia from 2000 to 2004.²⁹

Family
Lim was born into a prominent Straits Chinese family. His father, Dr Lim Chwee Leong (1891–1957), was a physician in Penang and a community leader.³⁰ His uncle Dr Lim Han Hoe (1894–1983) was conferred knighthood in 1946, the second Chinese in Malaya to be knighted after Sir Song Ong Siang.³¹ Lim’s eldest brother, Lim Chong Eu (1919–2010), was a chief minister of the state of Penang (1969–90).

Appointments³²
1960–69: Member, Housing and Development Board, Singapore
1965–67: Governor, Singapore Polytechnic
1966–69: President, Singapore Institute of Architects
1968–78: Chairman, Streets Naming Committee, Singapore
1969–71: Member, United Nations Review Panel for State and City Planning, Singapore
1969–74: Chairman, Architects Regional Council of Asia (ARCASIA)
1974–76: Member, National Museum Advisory Committee, Singapore
1977–81: Chairman, Commonwealth Board of Architectural Education³³

Awards
1966: Public Service Star Award³⁴
1997: Pertubuhan Akitek Malaysia (Malaysian Institute of Architects) Gold Medal³⁵
2002: Datuk Seri title³⁶
2015: Singapore Institute of Architect Gold Medal Award³⁷



Author
Ang Seow Leng



References
1. E. J. Seow, “Lim Chong Keat,” in Contemporary Architects, ed. Muriel Emanuel (New York: St Martin's Press, 1980), 473. (Call no. RART 720.922 CON)
2. “Lim Chong Keat,” Docomo Singapore, accessed 7 June 2023, https://www.docomomo.sg/people-and-organisations/lim-chong-keat.
3. “Top Scholar Returns,” Straits Times, 5 May 1958, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
4. “SIA Gold Medal Award Citation of Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat,” Urban Redevelopment Authority, accessed 7 June 2023, https://www.ura.gov.sg/services/download_file.aspx?f=%7B24B4C56E-8C52-4159-B539-95D0F3467C7F%7D.
5. “Poly Now Confident of UK Recognition,” Straits Times, 24 March 1967, 5 (From NewspaperSG); “History,” Department of Architecture, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore, last reviewed 10 August 2023, https://cde.nus.edu.sg/arch/about/history/.
6. Vanessa Lee, “Holistic by Design / Renaissance Man,” Straits Times, 16 November 2015. (From Newslink via NLB’s eResources website)
7. Dinesh Naidu, “Lim Chong Keat,” in Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary, vol. 1, ed. Leo Suryadinata (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 2012), 605. (Call no. RSING 959.004951 SOU)
8. “Winners of Design Contest Named,” Straits Times, 18 March 1962, 6. (From NewspaperSG)
9. “Pioneer Architect behind People’s Park Complex and Golden Mile Complex Dies,” Straits Times, 9 January 2023, https://www.straitstimes.com/life/home-design/singapore-pioneer-modern-architect-william-lim-dies-at-age-91.
10. “Founding of Company,” Architects Team 3, accessed 7 August 2023, http://www.at3s.com.sg/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=12&Itemid=3.
11. “Design Winners,” Straits Times, 6 December 1969, 10. (From NewspaperSG)
12. “Lim Chong Keat: Building Singapore and Malaysia,” M+ Magazine, 29 May 2019, video and transcript, 3:43, https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/magazine/lim-chong-keat-building-singapore-and-malaysia/.
13. Dinesh Naidu, “Lim Chong Keat,” 606.
14. “First Post-colonial Building to Be Gazetted as a National Monument,” Today, 28 December 2010, 4 (From NewspaperSG); Chew Hui Min, “Jurong Town Hall ‘a Baby’ among National Monuments,” Straits Times, 3 June 2015.
15. “Seventh Gold Medal Recipient: Lim Chong Keat 2015,” Singapore Institute of Architects, accessed 7 Jun 2023, https://sia.org.sg/awards/sia-gold-medalists/seventh-gold-medal-recipient-lim-chong-keat-2015/
16. “Southeast Asian Cultural Research Programme (SEACURP),” in Institute of Southeast Asian Studies Annual Report 1984/1985 (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1985), 18. (Call no. RCLOS 959.007205957 ISASAR)
17. Ong Choo Suat, Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage: Images of Traditional Communities (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1986), 14, 17. (Call no. RSEA 778.99959 ONG)
18. Ong, Southeast Asian Cultural Heritage, 18; M. Gretchen, “Goodbye, Houses of Tradition,” Straits Times, 15 November 1983, Section 2, 1. (From NewspaperSG)
19. P. Lim Pui Huen, “The Southeast Asian Cultural Programme of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies,” Sojourn 4, no. 10 (February 1989): 136. (Call no. RSING 300.5 SSISA)
20. Lee, “Holistic by Design.”
21. Dinesh Naidu, “Lim Chong Keat,” 606.
22. Seng Yu Jin and Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, eds., Suddenly Turning Visible: Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia (1969–1989) (Singapore: National Gallery Singapore, 2019), 302. (Call no. RSING 709.59 SUD)
23. Seng and Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia, 108.
24. Buckyworld Confluence @ Bellevue, last accessed 17 August 2023, https://buckyconfluence.org/.
25. Remembering Fuller with Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat, ArtScience Museum, 21 July 2022, 40:13, https://youtu.be/epiomxjVlnI.
26. Seng and Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, Art and Architecture in Southeast Asia, 302.
27. Ong Choo Suat, “Excellent Shows,” New Nation, 11 December 1971, 11; “Bali Farmers to Display Paintings,” Straits Times, 27 February 1974, 15. (From NewspaperSG)
28. Cheah Ui-Hoon, “Rub of the Green,” Business Times, 10 October 2009, 40 (From NewspaperSG); Dinesh Naidu, “Lim Chong Keat.”
29. Cheah, “Rub of the Green.”
30. “Dr Lim Chwee Leong,” Pinang Gazette and Straits Chronicle, 12 February 1934, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
31. “Knighthood For Doctor Lim Han Hoe,” Straits Times, 5 January 1946, 3. (From NewspaperSG)
32. Seow, “Lim Chong Keat.”
33. “SIA: ‘SIA, the CAA & the Genesis of Arcasia’ a Talk by Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat,” Singapore Institute of Architects, accessed 7 August 2023, https://store.iamarchitect.sg/tc-events/16710.
34. “N-Day Honours for 200,” Straits Times, 9 August 1966, 4. (From NewspaperSG)
35. Docomo Singapore, “Lim Chong Keat.”
36. Lee, “Holistic by Design.”
37. Urban Redevelopment Authority, “SIA Gold Medal Award Citation of Datuk Seri Lim Chong Keat.”



The information in this article is valid as of August 2023 and correct as far as we are able to ascertain from our sources. It is not intended to be an exhaustive or complete history of the subject. Please contact the Library for further reading materials on the topic.