[SINGAPORE] From restoring century-old churches to developing locally blended patination chemicals for copper domes, FranzWood has carved out a niche for itself in the areas of conservation, restoration, engineering and innovation.
“My passion is in conservation and restoration – I collect old stuff,” said Francis Lim, the consultancy and engineering group’s managing director. He enjoys preserving relics from his childhood – such as a timber rocking horse, a rarity nowadays.
He holds a master’s degree in civil structural engineering and was working as an engineer before deciding to strike out on his own.
In 2008, he founded FranzWood with a partner who has since left. The firm started out with two units: FranzWood Associates for conservation and restoration consultancy, as well as project management, and FranzWood ASA for engineering and diagnostics services.
To preserve and restore buildings, the firm undertakes work that spans multiple fields, such as structural engineering, materials and architecture.
These interdisciplinary demands mean that FranzWood engineers need to be “trained with an eye for architecture”, said Lim. It also means they can offer project management services, with the ability to address every facet of the operation.
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Restoration work on old buildings usually comes with a lack of information on the structures and their sturdiness. In 2010, FranzWood began investing in diagnostic tools which provide the needed information in such projects, and help to ensure that no damage is done to the sites.
The instruments cost anywhere from US$20,000 to US$100,000. The company sets aside 3 to 10 per cent of its operational expenditure budget annually to upgrade the tools when new models enter the market.
With these tools, FranzWood offers non-destructive diagnostic services for built environments such as 3D scanning, infrared thermography and colorimeter scanning, among many others.
In 2011, not long after it began business, FranzWood landed its first large-scale heritage conservation contract – as material conservation consultant for the restoration of the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall. The firm’s role was to check on the sturdiness and health of the building’s materials.
The project cemented FranzWood’s credibility within Singapore’s conservation and restoration industry. The company has since provided consultation services for the Ministry of Health’s Tan Teck Guan and College of Medicine buildings, as well as for the National Museum of Singapore.
However, its biggest project to date – and the one that Lim is most proud of – was the restoration of the 113-year-old St Joseph’s Church in Victoria Street. The work clinched one of five conservation awards at the 2024 Architectural Heritage Awards.
During the five-year-long restoration project, FranzWood was both the conservation consultant and structural engineer.
Besides providing solutions that restored the steel truss of the church’s roof and integrated ventilation into its dormer windows, the firm also brought in expert artisans to bring the stained-glass windows back to life.
Next step, innovation
FranzWood is expanding into a new but related area in the industry – artificial copper patination.
Patination is the production of green or brown film, or rust, on the surface of metals such as copper and bronze. It can take years for the patina to naturally rust into the familiar weathered teal, even in humid climates such as Singapore’s.
“People love that colour because of its uniqueness,” said Lim. It can often be found on copper roofs and domes, and artificial patination accelerates the oxidation process.
Local buildings sporting accelerated patination on their copper domes include the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall and the National Art Gallery. The work was done by a Japanese artisan.
Those skilled in artificial patination hail mostly from other parts of the world, such as Japan and Europe, where there is an abundance of copper domes. However, the spreads used in these projects are suited for more temperate climates.
This is where FranzWood comes in. In 2022, it collaborated with Singapore Polytechnic to produce a chemical spread that specifically targets the high humidity and harsh sun of the tropics – making it suitable for Singapore’s hot and humid environment.
The project cost around S$10,700, with a grant from Enterprise Singapore covering 70 per cent of it.
“It is quite a good blend,” Lim said about the joint effort, which was between engineers and architecture practitioners from FranzWood, and chemists and material scientists from Singapore Polytechnic.
The teams complemented each other with their expertise in different areas. The firm’s engineers came up with the idea to produce the spread, while the experts from the polytechnic helped to make it into reality.
As the spread is locally blended, there are cost savings to be enjoyed as well. “You save on the import tax (on materials) and the overseas artisans,” said Lim.
However, copper domes and roofs are not common sights in Singapore, he noted, so FranzWood intends to look at markets overseas later this year.
Overseas restoration
The company remains focused on its core business of conservation and restoration – in fact, it has just received offers to consult on the Tanjong Pagar Railway Station and the Parliament House restoration projects – but Lim has ambitions to expand overseas.
He hopes to take FranzWood’s services to the rest of Asean since Singapore’s market is small. He has his sights set on Cambodia and Indonesia in particular.
Cambodia, for example, has a large supply of old buildings and natural heritage sites – the most famous one being the Angkor Wat, which is also a Unesco World Heritage site.
But “to do conservation, they must be willing to pay”, said Lim. “Not everyone wants to do it.” In these markets, funding is often needed to restore even normal houses or buildings.
Singapore, in contrast, is affluent and can spend on preserving heritage and culture. This is why Lim is still waiting for the right moment to step into regional markets.
He has observed that there is limited expertise in the area of conservation in South-east Asia – so there will still be a niche for his services.
He expands his business with a view to transfer FranzWood’s proficiency to the region, to revitalise historic sites for future generations to enjoy.
