Places Of The Heart: Architect Koh Seow Chuan spent formative years at Singapore Swimming Club

Who: One of Singapore’s pioneer architects, Mr Koh Seow Chuan, 85, is the co-founder of DP Architects (DPA), which traces its roots back to 1967 when it started out as Design Partnership. Mr Koh renamed it DPA in 1975 and changed it to a private limited firm in 1993.

Today, it is one of the largest architectural practices in Singapore, with about 1,000 employees in 16 offices across 10 countries. Among his many ground-breaking designs, his vision for Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay earned him the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Worldwide Design Award in 2005. A year later, he won Design of the Year at the President’s Design Award.

In his Anglo-Chinese School days in the 1950s, Mr Koh was a competitive swimmer who was urged to train for the Olympics. Instead, he opted to further his studies in architecture at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1963.

The retired architect is also an internationally recognised philatelist and art collector. His wife, Mrs Koh-Lim Wen Gin, 80, is a retired Urban Redevelopment Authority chief planner. The couple have three daughters, a son and five grandchildren.

“My fondest memories are of the Singapore Swimming Club (SSC) in Tanjong Rhu, where I used to compete in the 1950s in its Olympic-size swimming pool.

The private club was officially opened in 1894 as a playground for mainly British and European members during colonial rule.

Years later, when SSC opened its membership to Singaporeans, I applied because of the memories I cherished of my competitive swimming years. I became a member in the early 1970s, and thereafter have made it my swimming club of choice.

As a schoolboy, I trained regularly at the Chinese Swimming Club in Amber Road and went to SSC only for national swimming competitions.

The pool has played a pivotal role in my life. It taught me to be disciplined, as swimmers have to train regularly to stay in top form.

While I turned down a chance to train for the Olympics in my younger days, I knew I was doing the right thing, as what I really wanted was to compete in a different way, through creative pursuits.

And I found my calling in architecture. When you think creatively, you are extending the lifespan of your mind.

Another of my passions is collecting stamps. Like architecture, stamps are also a snapshot of time.

Just like shophouses built with ornamented Peranakan facades which were popular during the 1930s, stamps also open a window into time with a visual narrative. It takes a creative mind to weave a story about a cluster of stamps issued at a certain point in time.

Today, engaging in creativity in my 80s adds to my brain’s fitness. I know everyone’s brain declines with age, but with creative challenges, I believe I am able to delay cognitive decline.

Although I retired from DPA in 2004, I continue to serve as a senior consultant to the firm.

Also, I am able to contribute because of what being in the water has taught me.

Even today, I swim every day in my condominium pool at Keppel Bay, conscious of how daily exercise helps keep my mind and body shipshape.

These days, I swim in the SSC pool only occasionally, as the club is more for meals and socialising. As one grows older, revisiting places that bring back good memories is calming as well as uplifting.

Swimming is easier on the joints than high-impact jogging, as it allows me to work out in the water for a longer stretch of time without straining my muscles.

Over the years, I have learnt a sort of ‘water logic’ and apply it diligently to my work as well as personal life.

I study the way water swirls and navigates its way around a hurdle, carving a new path and seeking out alternative routes because of its fluidity.

When I am faced with hurdles and challenges, I take inspiration from water instead of sticking to a rigid way of thinking. I move around the problem and try to look at it from all angles.

This is something I have been practising since my early days as an architect, when I was faced with immense challenges pertaining to site, budget constraints and deadlines.

And when all else fails, I take a step back, switch off the lights, head home and turn to a different kind of liquid logic – an ice-cold mug of beer or a little whisky on the rocks.

The key to managing stress is to be able to detach from the world at regular intervals to unwind.

This valuable downtime gives clarity. It is easier to see the wood from the trees after you have gained perspective.

Six years ago, my wife Gin and I sold our landed property, which was built on a hillside in Pasir Panjang, and bought a condominium in Keppel Bay, where we have unobstructed views of Sentosa island in the distance and are surrounded by water.

The views from the new apartment take me back to my most formative years in the SSC pool.

Like water, I strive to live a life not constrained by boundaries, but one which is in constant flow.”