Church of the Blessed Sacrament

The Church of the Blessed Sacrament was part of a wave of modern Catholic churches that were built outside the central district of Singapore to serve the population who were moving to private and public housing estates in the suburbs. Unlike the Catholic churches designed by Alfred Wong—notably, the Church of St. Francis Xavier (1958), the Church of St. Ignatius (1961), and the Church of St. Bernadette (1961)—that are located in or near private housing estates, the Church of the Blessed Sacrament is located within Queenstown, the first public housing estate completed by the Housing and Development Board (HDB). 

Designed by Gordon Dowsett of Iversen, van Sitteren and Partners, the church has a distinctive folded pitched roof that is said to resemble a tent, which bears biblical symbolism. Although the roof was not informed by the structural logic of folding, its sculptural form brings to mind the large roofs of the region’s vernacular architecture. The multivalence of the roof can be attributed to its skilful architect who also designed other sculptural buildings, such as the MacPherson Road Market (1953) and Globe Cinema (1957), both of which have unfortunately been demolished.

Location: 1 Commonwealth Dr, Singapore 149603

Architects: Gordon Dowsett of Iversen, van Sitteren and Partners

Year: 1965

Status: Conserved in 2005

 

by Darren Soh

A distinctive Celtic cross adorns the external wall behind the main altar. The impeccably finished fair-faced brick façades of the church demanded highly skilled masonry work and are now testimony to an exquisite level of workmanship and craft that has been largely lost in Singapore.

by Darren Soh

by Darren Soh

by Darren Soh

by Jeremy San

Complementing the masonry walls, the ceilings cladded in stained plywood impart warmth and scale to the space. Glass panels are cleverly integrated where the four sections of the roof meet to allow natural light into the interiors. The unusual “chandeliers” comprising fluorescent tube lighting are rare intact specimens from the 1960s, when these were newly introduced.

by Jeremy San

Like others of its time, the church was designed for natural lighting and ventilation. Constructed entirely of precast ventilation blocks, the entrance wall virtually dematerialises into a delightful latticework of colours.

The steel-trussed folded roof spans heroically over the cruciform-shaped plan, supported off squat reinforced concrete columns. The gravity-defying roof planes are perfectly counter-balanced by the massive triangular non-load-bearing enclosure walls of fair-faced brickwork. By Jeremy San.

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Last modified on 4 May 2021. Description adapted from Chang Jiat Hwee, “Religiously Modern,” The Singapore Architect 14 (2018), 108-125.