Archival material, United Overseas Bank (UOB) headquarters building (1971–1974), Singapore 新加坡大華銀行總部大樓（1971至1974年）檔案資料

One of Southeast Asia’s leading banks, United Overseas Bank (UOB) commissioned Architects Team 3 to design a new building on Singapore’s Raffles Place in the early 1970s, as part of their ambition to expand. It was the first development in the accelerated urban renewal of Singapore’s historic commercial zone and it set the pattern of redevelopment towards a modern banking district. Set off by its squat site and proximity to the Singapore River, the project’s thirty-storey octagonal tower was meant to appear identical from all perspectives and relate to its environment. The tower’s surfaces are punctuated by rows of square and rectangular windows, which at several points become cut-outs framing semi-enclosed exterior spaces. Office floors are organised around a central structural core.

The tower sits on a four-storey podium, one corner of which dissolves to shape a cavernous, double-height entrance to the banking hall that features full-height glass walls without mullions. On the far end of the hall, a geodesic dome—inspired by principal Lim Chong Keat’s friendship with Buckminster Fuller—defines a children’s play area. The architects were also responsible for the project’s interiors, including furniture, textiles, artwork, and fixtures.

In the early 1990s, UOB hired Kenzo Tange to realise a headquarters on a neighbouring site and alter the existing building, now known as UOB Plaza Two. Tange retained Architects Team 3’s original octagonal plan but added new cladding and rotated-cube elements to its roof, echoing the design of his own tower.

This series contains photographs of architectural drawings and models of the building, along with multiple photographs of the completed building’s interior and exterior, including a montage of six photographs taped together. There are also press cuttings and an invitation to the building opening. The series includes two renderings of what would become UOB Plaza Two.