Singapore in Colour
Even in Singapore’s grey cityscape, vibrant colours can be found everywhere.
Not just in its aesthetic alleyways, or its gorgeous gardens, but also in its heartland and MRT stations.
The Straits Times’ digital graphics team and photo desk teamed up to programmatically extract Singapore’s hues from thousands of photos.
When put together, these colours paint a vivid picture of the island — a mosaic of neighbourhoods each with their own character and charm.
The city as a whole has its own palette featuring surprising pops of colour, and we’ve highlighted some of our favourites.
Singapore’s colours clearly extend beyond the high-rise, monochrome expanse of steel, glass and cement.
So, how did we find the colour for this analysis?
We took 2,000 photos from around the city, like this one from Downtown Core.
From each photo, we extracted the most prominent five colours...
… and visualised each neighbourhood as pixels of colour. This is Downtown Core.
In 10,000 colours, here is all of Singapore.
You can find every colour of the rainbow, if you look.
There’s a fair bit of grey from buildings, streets and shadows.
But also lush greens, sky blues, and bright pops of colour in everyday spaces from hawker centres to HDBs.
Ultimately, every neighbourhood has a unique palette.
Some neighbourhoods were more colourful than the others. Joo Chiat’s pastel Peranakan houses brought personality to Geylang. In the heartlands, we found lots of red in Bishan.
Some were expected. For example, the Central Water Catchment area — home to the MacRitchie Reservoir — was very green. Places near the coast like Bedok were more blue.
Our team took photos mostly on clear days. That’s why you may notice more blues or greys in neighbourhoods based on the weather when shots were taken.
And subject matter is subjective. Each area was assigned to a photographer with a simple brief: look for colour.
Some may have leaned towards streets and HDBs while others may have fancied the flowers and neighbourhood cats to be found.
So, go out with a camera, and you’ll likely capture a different picture of Singapore’s colours. But you’ll find colour nonetheless.
Explore each of the neighbourhoods below, based on the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s planning areas, to view their colours through our lenses. Click on a colour to view its source photo and filter images by their colour palette.
Ang Mo Kio
Bukit Batok
Bedok
Bukit Merah
Bukit Panjang
Bishan
Bukit Timah
Central Water Catchment
Changi
Choa Chu Kang
Clementi
Downtown Core
Geylang
Hougang
Jurong East
Jurong West
Kallang
Lim Chu Kang
Mandai
Marine Parade
Marina South
Museum
Newton
Novena
Orchard
Outram
Punggol
Pasir Ris
Queenstown
Rochor
River Valley
Sembawang
Sengkang
Serangoon
Southern Islands
Sungei Kadut
Seletar
Singapore River
Tampines
Tanglin
Toa Payoh
Tuas
Western Water Catchment
Woodlands
Yishun
