More than a building, we envision a garden park: a place for all people to gather close to nature.
– Kengo Kuma

Kengo Kuma & Associates, working with K2LD Architects, have won a competition to create the Singapore Founders’ Memorial with a design that "draws from monuments of the past and the context of the present to create a space for the future."

The Founders' Memorial International Architectural Design Competition was launched in January 2019. It sought an integrated building and garden experience, with exhibition galleries, landscaped spaces and art installations, as well as stories about Singapore’s first generation of leaders.

The winning proposal was chosen from a total of 193 submissions, with construction now expected to begin in 2022 and completion expected by 2027.

Located at the Gardens by the Bay parkland destination, the concept uses paths as a metaphor for retracing the legacy of Singapore's founders, which wind through and shape the landscape while all leading to an amphitheatre that will host events.

"More than a building, we envision a garden park: a place for all people to gather close to nature," said Kengo Kuma. "The basis of the design, The Founders' Path, is a central spine, which cuts through the garden, defining the new topography with memorial slopes emerging from the landscape to house the programme. A network of meandering paths and canopies reaches out from the garden, drawing visitors inward; offering glimpses of the memorial, and finally revealing the city skyline beyond.”

The jury selected the proposal as the winner for best fulfilling the brief and doing so creatively, for including "distinctive architectural, landscaping and place-making characteristics", for its practical, feasible and logistically sound design and for the public's positive feedback on it.

The jury said: "Its organic form creates a welcome counterpoint to the domes of Gardens by the Bay. It represents a bold and imaginative new type of memorial which rises out of the landscape.

"Conceptually different from the other shortlisted designs, it emphasises Singapore as a 'City in a Garden' and allows for future growth. More than a singular building, it is a sustainable, environmentally progressive reflection of the ideals of Singapore.

"In addition, the design has great potential to provide multi-layered experiences for all visitors in its blending of external and internal spaces."