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28-476: 111 Somerset is a high-rise commercial building and shopping mall in Orchard, Singapore. The building was first known as Public Utilities Board Building (PUB Building) until 1995, and was later known as Singapore Power Building until 2008 when acquired by YTL Corporation Pacific Star. It used to house the headquarters of SP Group , until it shifted to its current site at Kallang. It includes two office towers and

56-471: A Modernist architectural style known as Brutalism . This style of architecture was popular with government buildings in the 1970s and 80s. Situated between Somerset Road and Devonshire Road, Group 2 Architects designed the PUB Building as an H-shaped block with a central service core and a naturally-ventilated lobby. Facing north and south, the two parallel wings are of unequal height, and are linked by

84-702: A cafeteria and carparks. The original design of the Singapore Power Building was executed virtually without later alteration although it would later be surrounded by hotels, the Somerset MRT station and shopping complexes. The structural framework of the building utilises a simple system of reinforced concrete beams and slabs, and was originally clad in square mosaic and rectangular ceramic tiles on its walls and columns. The building's foundation comprises large diameter bored piles installed in decomposed sandstone . Beams span an average 7.6 metres except at

112-585: A city spread, as well as a place for the people to worship. It was also a sacred structure. The biblical account of the Tower of Babel has been associated by modern scholars to the massive construction undertakings of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia , and in particular to the ziggurat of Etemenanki in Babylon in light of the Tower of Babel Stele describing its restoration by Nebuchadnezzar II . According to some historians

140-532: A retail podium. It is currently being managed by Shun Tak (Somerset). The PUB Building, located near Singapore's main shopping belt of Orchard Road , was built to accommodate several departments of the Public Utilities Board which had outgrown its office space in City Hall . The building was the result of an architectural design competition . In July 1971, a contest to design PUB's corporate headquarters

168-448: A wider transverse area three floors in height, and further up by the lift shaft and the access to each floor. Between the two wings is a landscaped courtyard. The architects sought to create an approachable building that reflected the role of the PUB as a public supplier of gas and electricity , and this led them to choose strong horizontal elements for the design. In the building's façade, this

196-473: Is a Neo-Sumerian ziggurat built by King Ur-Nammu , who dedicated it in honor of Nanna/Sîn in approximately the 21st century BC during the Third Dynasty of Ur . Ziggurats were built by ancient Sumerians , Akkadians , Elamites , Eblaites and Babylonians for local religions. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex with other buildings. Before the ziggurats there were raised platforms that date from

224-409: Is achieved with distinctive rows of vertical fins, staggered so as to emphasise horizontal movement; these fins also provide shade. A secondary horizontal pattern results from grouping two or more rows of these fins in blocks. The Singapore Power Building's defining architectural motif is its "inverted ziggurat " façade. The building tapers from cantilevered upper floors to recessed lower floors, and

252-469: Is the oldest known ziggurat, dating to the early 3rd millennium BCE. Ziggurat designs ranged from simple bases upon which a temple sat, to marvels of mathematics and construction which spanned several terraced stories and were topped with a temple. An example of a simple ziggurat is the White Temple of Uruk , in ancient Sumer . The ziggurat itself is the base on which the White Temple is set. Its purpose

280-465: Is to get the temple closer to the heavens, and provide access from the ground to it via steps. The Mesopotamians believed that these pyramid temples connected heaven and earth. In fact, the ziggurat at Babylon was known as Etemenanki , which means "House of the foundation of heaven and earth" in Sumerian . The date of its original construction is unknown, with suggested dates ranging from the fourteenth to

308-401: Is usually assumed that the ziggurats supported a shrine, though the only evidence for this comes from Herodotus , and physical evidence is non-existent ... The likelihood of such a shrine ever being found is remote. Erosion has usually reduced the surviving ziggurats to a fraction of their original height, but textual evidence may yet provide more facts about the purpose of these shrines. In

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336-652: The Ubaid period during the sixth millennium BCE. The ziggurats began as platforms (usually oval, rectangular or square). The ziggurat was a mastaba -like structure with a flat top. The sun-baked bricks made up the core of the ziggurat with facings of fired bricks on the outside. Each step was slightly smaller than the step below it. The facings were often glazed in different colors and may have had astrological significance. Kings sometimes had their names engraved on these glazed bricks. The number of floors ranged from two to seven. According to archaeologist Harriet Crawford , It

364-456: The gods , and each city had its own patron god. Only priests were permitted on the ziggurat or in the rooms at its base, and it was their responsibility to care for the gods and attend to their needs. The priests were very powerful members of Sumerian and Assyro-Babylonian society. One of the best-preserved ziggurats is Chogha Zanbil in western Iran . The Sialk ziggurat, in Kashan , Iran ,

392-744: The 1970s. The Al Zaqura Building is a government building situated in Baghdad . It serves the office of the prime minister of Iraq . The Babylon Hotel in Baghdad also is inspired by the ziggurat. The Chet Holifield Federal Building is colloquially known as "the Ziggurat" due to its form. It is a United States government building in Laguna Niguel , California , built between 1968 and 1971. Further examples include The Ziggurat in West Sacramento , California, and

420-466: The building's distinctive structural profile. Internally, the building was organised to reflect the distribution of office spaces required by PUB's departments at the time, with more space needed on the upper floors. The chamfered parapets at the ends soften the corners of the building. The length of the building is emphasised and the design elements are visually integrated by vertical projections housing staircases. The staggered façade provides views to

448-400: The complex in 2010 included a FairPrice Finest supermarket. In the 1971 design competition for the PUB Building, the other three finalists proposed high-rise structures to project a corporate image. However, Group 2 Architect's winning design, in the jury's words, allowed "natural form and function to achieve character and dignity " for the building. The 17-storey high PUB building shows

476-559: The design of Egyptian pyramids , especially the stepped designs of the oldest pyramids ( Pyramid of Zoser at Saqqara , 2600 BCE), may have been an evolution from the ziggurats built in Mesopotamia. Others say the Pyramid of Zoser and the earliest Egyptian pyramids may have been derived locally from the bench-shaped mastaba tomb. The shape of the ziggurat experienced a revival in modern architecture and Brutalist architecture starting in

504-464: The exterior, while offering voids in between that afford "breathing space". The ground floor of the building was dedicated to public access and use for retail as well. It is entered via wide steps under columns that are three- or four-storeys high, and these pilotis create a sense of space for the naturally ventilated public lobby areas. From the concourse, which is decorated with wall-relief sculptures, steps lead to upper and lower public service areas,

532-523: The influence of Gerhard M. Kallmann 's 1962 Boston City Hall , also a competition winner, which was, in turn, influenced by Le Corbusier 's Sainte Marie de La Tourette (1957–1960) by . The development of the form of the PUB Building was mannerist , however, in contrast to the inherent logic evident in La Tourette, and to some degree in the City Hall. The design and architecture of the building resulted in

560-729: The main entrance where post-tensioned concrete beams span 15 metres. The auditorium is roofed over by 24-metre long steel trusses with a composite reinforced concrete covering. YTL Corporation Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.150 via cp1114 cp1114, Varnish XID 456604617 Upstream caches: cp1114 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Fri, 29 Nov 2024 06:55:11 GMT Ziggurat The word ziggurat comes from ziqqurratum (height, pinnacle), in ancient Assyrian. From zaqārum , to be high up. The Ziggurat of Ur

588-408: The ninth century BC, with textual evidence suggesting it existed in the second millennium. Unfortunately, not much of even the base is left of this massive structure, yet archeological findings and historical accounts put this tower at seven multicolored tiers, topped with a temple of exquisite proportions. The temple is thought to have been painted and maintained an indigo color, matching the tops of

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616-482: The present state of our knowledge it seems reasonable to adopt as a working hypothesis the suggestion that the ziggurats developed out of the earlier temples on platforms and that small shrines stood on the highest stages ... Access to the shrine would have been by a series of ramps on one side of the ziggurat or by a spiral ramp from base to summit. The Mesopotamian ziggurats were not places for public worship or ceremonies. They were believed to be dwelling places for

644-433: The resulting overhangs help to shade the lower levels, a logical response to the tropical climate . The tropical setting also led to the provision of a generous shaded concourse at ground level. It was the combination of design features intended to reflect the climate, together with an objective of making the floor areas congruent with the size of the administrative elements of the utility that occupied them, that resulted in

672-480: The shrine was accessible only by way of three stairways, a small number of guards could prevent non-priests from spying on the rituals at the shrine on top of the ziggurat, such as initiation rituals like the Eleusinian mysteries , cooking of sacrificial food and burning of sacrificial animals. Each ziggurat was part of a temple complex that included a courtyard, storage rooms, bathrooms, and living quarters, around which

700-494: The tiers. It is known that there were three staircases leading to the temple, two of which (side flanked) were thought to have only ascended half the ziggurat's height. According to Herodotus , at the top of each ziggurat was a shrine, although none of these shrines has survived. Functionally, ziggurats offered a high place on which priests could escape rising water that annually inundated lowlands and occasionally flooded for hundreds of kilometres. They also offered security; since

728-593: Was launched. Of 23 submissions, four were picked by a jury headed by then PUB chairman Lim Kim San . The proposal by the now-defunct Singapore architectural firm Group 2 Architects (1970–1978), formed by Ong Chin Bee and Tan Puay Huat, won. Built to a height of 100 metres (328 ft), the PUB Building was completed in 1977; construction cost S$ 32 million. It was renamed as the Singapore Power Building, after PUB's electricity and gas operations were corporatised to Singapore Power on 1 October 1995. The Singapore Power Building

756-428: Was renamed to its present name. The new owner undertook a S$ 50 million renovation and added more retail space to the building by converting offices, a cafeteria, empty spaces in the lobby areas as well as the carpark and the auditorium. It now has 500,000 square feet (46,000 m) of offices, 60,000 square feet (5,600 m) of retail space and a 5,000 square feet (460 m) outdoor refreshment area. The reopening of

784-580: Was renovated in 2006, when Singapore Power chose not to redevelop its corporate headquarters. Instead, it opted to refurbish and reclad the building in silvery metal. On 29 January 2007, PUB moved out of the building to join its parent ministry, Ministry of the Environment and Water Resources , at the Environment Building on Scotts Road . When YTL Pacific Star acquired the building in February 2008, it

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