Ho Kwong Yew
Portrait with pipe: "Malayan Architectural Personalities - Mr. Ho Kwong Yew", The Malayan Architect 7, no. 12 (December 1935), 277.
Ho Kwong Yew (1903–1942) was the first local-born Asian to become a registered architect in Singapore. He passed the first professional examination conducted by the Board of Architects when the Architect’s Ordinance was introduced in 1927. Naturally gifted, highly intelligent, and motivated, Ho was able to surmount the class and ethnic inequalities of colonial society to carve out a successful career, albeit which was tragically cut short during the Japanese Occupation of Singapore. Ho was at the forefront of the local architectural scene, producing numerous outstanding modernist buildings, including private residences, shophouses, industrial, institutional, and religious edifies in both Singapore and Malaya. His practice was succeeded by his sons, Kok Hoe, Kok Kit, and later Kok Yin, under the name, Ho Kwong Yew & Sons, and was active till the late 1980s.
Born into a middle-class family that owned a tailoring business, Ho Kwong Yew received his education at the Anglican Church-affiliated St Andrew’s School in Stamford Road. His talent in drawing caught the notice of the headmaster, Rev. J. Romanis Lee, who recommended him for an apprenticeship with the colonial Public Works Department (PWD) on his graduation in 1922. At a time where institutionalised architectural education was non-existent in Singapore, this rare opportunity kick-started Ho’s professional training. He worked under the PWD government architect, H.A. Stallwood.
The Municipal Building in 1930, which was renamed City Hall in 1951. Photo by Andrew Tan from National Archives of Singapore.
By 1924, Ho had honed his skills enough to be gainfully employed as an assistant draughtsman in the Municipal Architect’s Office. There he worked under S.D. Meadows and A. Gordon on two significant projects, namely the Fort Canning Military Headquarters Building, and the new Singapore Municipal Building (later known as City Hall) fronting the Padang. Extant building plans of the latter testify to Ho’s impeccable draughtsmanship. Through these projects, he gained a great deal of experience in reinforced concrete (RC) technology, then newly introduced in Singapore. Two years later, Ho left government service to join a private architecture and engineering practice, Chung and Wong, as a partner, working on a number of residences such as the famed Jade House in Nassim Road (demolished).
The turning point in his career came when he decided to set up his own firm in 1933, at the height of the Depression years. By then he was also a registered civil engineer and a member of the Institute of Structural Engineers in Singapore. With his great flair for design and in-depth technical knowledge of RC construction — then the reserve of mainly expatriate engineers — Ho experimented with architectural modernism in a repertoire of works that departed radically from his earlier eclectic historicist designs.
One of his definitive works is the Chee Guan Chiang mansion in Grange Road, designed for an established Straits Chinese family headed by prominent entrepreneur and financier Chee Swee Cheng. Stripped of overt ornamentation, the streamlined aesthetic was feted by the local press as a harbinger of a “New Modern Architecture in Singapore”. The sweeping curves of the verandahs and daring cantilevered flat roofs flaunted his deft use of cutting edge RC construction techniques. Another iconic work was the Tai Chung Building in Circular Road, with its prismatic form, distinctive turret, and razor-thin sunshading fins that gave modern expression to the traditional shophouse. His own office-cum-residence in Yan Kit Road (demolished) featured possibly the earliest purpose-built roof garden in a residential townhouse.
Haw Par Villa (Tiger Balm Gardens) theme park, ca. 1950s. Part of Set Harrison Forman Collection. Photographer Harrison Forman. Source: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries.
Ho’s most well known and original work was arguably the Haw Par Villa, built for the Aw brothers of Tiger Balm fame in late 1937 (destroyed in 1942). With a commanding view over the sprawling Haw Par Gardens in Pasir Panjang, the house is distinguished by a cluster of RC dome-roofs with gravity defying cantilevered fins. The image of lightness was completed by the generous expanse of slender steel-framed windows that dematerialised the building facades. The interiors, on the other hand, reflected the flamboyance and eclectic sensibilities of the owners. The fantastical juxtaposition of geometric motifs and decorative themes was inspired by art nouveau and even late Baroque architecture, complementing the colourful, allegorical gardens.
Ho’s works were clearly influenced by the Modern Movement in Europe, with an emphasis on geometric, unadorned building forms that signified a break from the past. Nevertheless, he was equally fascinated by ornamented traditional architecture. Ho’s first overseas trip in 1930 brought him to Hong Kong and Canton, his ancestral home-town. Having visited historic Chinese temples, he professed deep admiration for the skilful craftsmanship of traditional builders.
Amongst Ho’s works, the Holy Trinity Church in Horne Road (1940), built to house the Foochow and Hokkien-speaking services of St Andrew’s Mission, appears at first to be uncharacteristic and even enigmatic. Sporting a series of Chinese-themed roofs, its ethnic-modern expression goes beyond skin-deep mimicry of tradition, true to Ho’s disciplined approach to structure and craft. The “Chinese” roofs sit on a modern composite structure of triangulated truss and dougong bracket systems, the architecture an effortless reconciliation of tradition and modernity.
Other than commercial and residential buildings, Ho also did much work for institutions, including the assembly hall and library for Nanyang Girls’ High School (1934), St Theresa’s Home of Little Sisters of the Poor (1938), and the 1939 Tung Shin Hospital Administration Building (in Kuala Lumpur).
As a self-made man, Ho earned the respect of his European colleagues in both government service and the private sector. He became the first Asian to be elected a council member of the Institute of Architects of Malaya (IAM), entering a hitherto European-dominated arena. In fact, he won an open competition for the official seal design of IAM’s predecessor, the Singapore Society of Architects Incorporated (SSA). The seal continued to be used by IAM when it replaced the SSA, well into the post-war decades.
As one of the rare handful of local-born Asian architecture professionals in pre-war Singapore, Ho enjoyed the support and patronage of the Chinese elite. At the same time, he was deeply concerned about local community welfare and maintained a keen interest in China’s political developments, especially during the tumultuous 1930s. His social circle included mainland and overseas Chinese literati and intellectuals, such as Lim Bo Seng with whom he shared a passion for photography. Famed Chinese artist Xu Beihong was a frequent guest at his Yan Kit Road residence, where he produced a vivid portrait for the family. In a way, the Holy Trinity Church design signalled the burgeoning sense of identity among the domiciled Chinese-speaking community. It heralded the series of “Chinese-Modern” works in the post-war years, such as the Nanyang University and the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce.
Ho’s promising career abruptly ended in February 1942 when he was arrested by the Japanese military and never returned. Nevertheless his pioneering legacy lives on in the progressive, imaginative works he created.
Last modified on 5 May 2021. Reproduced from Ho Weng Hin and Tan Kar Lin, “Ho Kwong Yew” in Leo Suryadinata, ed., Southeast Asian Personalities of Chinese Descent: A Biographical Dictionary, Volume I (Singapore: ISEAS Publishing, 2012), 338-40, with the kind permission of the authors and publisher, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.
References
Lim, S.H., Jon. “Colonial Architecture and Architects of Georgetown (Penang) and Singapore Between 1786 and 1942”. Academic thesis presented for the Ph.D. Architecture degree, National University of Singapore, 1990.
———. “Singapore’s Modernist Maverick”. In Interiors Quarterly Magazine, Oct/Nov 1994, Singapore.
Seow, Eu Jin. “Architectural Development in Singapore”. Academic thesis presented for the doctor of philosophy degree, University of Melbourne, 1974.
The Malayan Architect. “Malayan Architectural Personalities: Ho Kwong Yew”. VII, no. 8, August 1935. Singapore: Institute of Architects of Malaya.
