Designing a facade that announces a new chapter for Sim Lim Square

Sim Lim Square has been a fixture of Singapore's electronics retail scene for decades — but its facade had long faded into the background. When the building's owners embarked on a comprehensive repositioning under the New Bahru brand, they commissioned Swan & Maclaren to lead the facade architecture and integrated lighting design.

The brief was to give the building a new face — one that reflected its ambition to evolve from a legacy IT mall into a lifestyle and tech retail destination. The challenge was doing this without the luxury of a blank slate: the facade had to work within the constraints of the existing structure while delivering genuine visual impact.

The design introduced a bold facade system that transforms the building's street presence by day and by night. Integrated lighting was embedded into the architecture from the outset — not applied as an afterthought, but designed as part of the same formal language.

The new facade repositions Sim Lim Square — now New Bahru — as a building that competes for attention along the Rochor corridor. The lighting design reinforces the architecture after dark, ensuring the building remains a visible landmark across the full 24-hour cycle.