A Walking Tour Singapore: Sketches of the City's Architectural Treasures

by Gregory Byrne Bracken

Singapore is a cosmopolitan city with towering skyscrapers and state-of-the-art building technology. Nestled within its modern built environment are vestiges of its British colonial past and its cultural history. From its spanking new waterfront to its quaint shophouses and from its temples to its mosques and churches, Singapore is as multifarious architecturally as it is culturally. Architect G. Byrne Bracken captures with his sketches the unique diversity that defines Singapore. Covering favourite places such as Chinatown, the Civic District, Orchard Road and Kampong Gelam, this charming sketch-cum-guidebook will enrich your appreciation of Singapore through its distinctive urban landscape.

In this 4th edition: 14 new illustrations, including the spectacular Marina Bay Sands, the ArtScience Museum and ION Orchard; refined walking routes; and fully updated information on all the latest developments in this fast-changing metropolis.

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2002

About the author

Dr. Gregory Bracken, Assistant Professor of Architecture at the TU Delft in the Netherlands, is the author and illustrator of the Walking Tour City Guide series. He worked for several years as an architect in Asia, and has authored several books and articles on the architectural facets of Asian cities.

Reviews

[Parka · Rating 5 out of 5]

(More pictures on my blog)

Singapore: A Walking Tour is a travel guidebook that's slightly different from usual ones - this one uses sketches to illustrate places instead of photos.

The chapters are all walks around the city area. The area has many tall modern buildings, but the book focuses more on the old buildings that have been conserved to remember the history of the place. Of course there are more modern buildings as well.

There's a map at the start of each chapter with a list of buildings you can see along the route. Each building has interesting snippets of information that I don't even know, and I live in Singapore.

The beautiful sketches are drawn by Gregory Byrne Bracken. The sketches are line work with no washes but they are very fine and detailed. The artist is an architect and it shows in the sketches through the nice composition, perspective and details. He manages to capture the essence of the place very well.

As a travel guidebook for Singapore, I'll highly recommend this. Get this if you want to walk the streets, understand Singapore better, check out the less touristy but significant places.