Museums, Exhibitions & GalleriesScience, History, Education

Lee Kong Chian
Natural History
Museum

Location
Singapore
Client
National University of Singapore
Surface area
2,200 m² / 23,680 sq ft
Completion date
2015
Overview

The Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum’s brand new building houses the world’s largest collection of specimens from Southeast Asia.

GSM Project was commissioned to conceptualize the narrative and develop the design of the museum’s public galleries.

Our challenge: To reinvent the oldest museum in Singapore

With its roots as a university museum and a research centre, the oldest museum institution in Singapore came looking for a facelift to coincide with its move to a new building. We had to find ways to marry the museum’s significant scientific knowledge with new narratives and contemporary design strategies that would engage visitors.

After a few months of operations, the LKCNHM had already emerged as a global landmark in the field of natural history museums and one of Singapore’s most popular visitor destinations.

We did not want to become a zoo attraction. To me, an exhibition design should always leave some space for imagination and contemplation.

Laura Miotto

Exhibition Designer, GSM Project

The beauty of nature, on display

GSM Project collaborated closely with the museum’s curators and conservators, whose magic hands revitalized and restored over 2000 specimens from the museum’s unrivalled scientific collection: from microscopic organisms to giant dinosaur skeletons, and everything in between.

Summary

The biodiversity gallery showcases the variety of life native to the region, with thousands of specimens and fossils on display, including three immense dinosaur skeletons from 150 million years ago. Meanwhile, the heritage gallery upstairs shows how the museum’s collection is tied to the city’s history.