2021
Discipline
Art Direction, Spatial, Graphic Design, Environmental Design
Client
MAS
Industry
Government, Finance
How should the spaces where Singapore’s most consequential financial decisions are made feel and function? In 2021, MAS appointed &Larry to replan and spatially brand Level 29 of the MAS Building. As lead consultant, we oversaw the project from research and tender through the Design and Build phase.
Interviews and focus groups with senior management and staff revealed a tension at the heart of MAS: it must safeguard stability while enabling innovation. The floor also had practical issues, from an overlooked lift lobby to a cramped holding room and offices affected by morning glare. The design had to address both the institution and the people working within it.
On stepping through the entrance, visitors are greeted by an installation of four custom granite slabs to represent MAS’s cardinal values: rough hewn for INTEGRITY, interlocked for COMMITMENT, cascading ripples for ENTERPRISE, and honeycombed for TEAMWORK. Together with a three-dimensional representation of the MAS logo, this installation would also serve as an attractive backdrop for group photos, something that had been lacking before.
To tell the history and milestones of MAS, we drew inspiration from the engraved artwork from different series of Singapore currency notes issued through the decades. Iconic visual elements such as birds, flowers and ships were redrawn by local artist Damien Soh, together with new elements such as the original MAS logo, historic buildings and more. These were then collaged onto 9 overlapping steel panels, reminiscent of printing plates, with each one bent or rolled by hand to evoke the feeling of paper currency.
Information for important events were organised thematically onto magnetic plates for easy updating in future. A modular ‘timeline’ of past and present Chairmen and Managing Directors was incorporated into the design to accommodate changes and updates.
The former holding room was opened up and fitted with more seating, power points and a semi-porous divider. Paintings by Aaron Gan and an artificial skylight soften a space used by staff before important presentations. We also repositioned doorways and desks, resized offices, and brought a recording studio onto the same floor.
Lighter finishes and carefully calibrated lighting made the Conference Room and Boardroom brighter and more suitable for virtual meetings. A watercolour by Hong Sek Chern traces Singapore’s financial landscape. Along the widened corridor, works by Wyn-Lyn Tan and Zen Teh, a brass waveform based on words by Dr Goh Keng Swee, and displays for ceramics by Iskander Jalil and Ng Eng Teng give local art a stronger presence.
Across the foyer, Roger & Sons reused wood from the original MAS Boardroom table to create a mural of communal tables found in Singapore’s housing estates. It is a simple reminder that decisions made in the boardroom eventually reach everyday lives.
For the redesigned Conference Room and Boardroom, we advocated for lighter wood finishes to bring about a brighter and more spacious feel. We paid particular attention to the Boardroom ceiling, utilising a cascading design to diffuse the lighting evenly. Colour temperatures were carefully calibrated to ensure skin tones were optimised for virtual conferences. Cabling for the microphones and controls were concealed to reduce clutter.
As a finishing touch, a new watercolour painting by local artist Hong Sek Chern was commissioned for the Boardroom, depicting a journey through a semi-abstract urban landscape of iconic buildings and landmarks in Singapore’s financial history.
This long passageway from the Foyer to the Visitor Room at the end used to be narrower and visitors passing through had no room to admire the old paintings displayed on either side of the walls. We not only widened the passageway, we also shortened its length by opening up the preceding Holding Area.
On the left side heading down are a triptych of etched brass artworks by Wyn-Lyn Tan and Zen Teh, arranged side-by-side to resemble an abstract landscape. This was a conscious choice to show MAS’s support for local artists, and also the progressive, non-traditional side of its public persona.
Inspired by a quote by former MAS Chairman Dr Goh Keng Swee, this installation is based on the actual waveform of his spoken words, manifested as a series of golden bars of varying length that wrap around the bend at the end of the corridor, leading you to the Visitor Room on the left.
We designed new display shelves that could properly accommodate highly prized pieces by local ceramic artists like Iskander Jalil and Ng Eng Teng. We also curated the display of three paintings by Ong Soo Keat that were in the MAS art collection.
Ong is a Malaysian artist whose paintings of birds were featured in numerous Malaysia stamp collections from the late 1970s through the 1990s. In this case, his painting of the White-Bellied Sea Eagle was the basis of the illustration seen on the $10,000 note in Singapore’s ‘Bird Series’ currency notes that were in circulation from 1976 to 1984.