Bugis Bookbinding Studio: S$80 December Class at Objectifs

Objectifs is best known as Singapore's centre for photography and film, but its December programme includes something for book lovers: a hands-on bookbinding class built around the formats photographers use for photobooks. The centre occupies a restored 19th-century chapel and an adjoining two-storey building at 155 Middle Road, Singapore 188977, on the corner with Waterloo Street. The class costs S$80 for three hours, and you take home a full bookbinding tool kit with the books you make.

The Chapel Gallery has a long history. According to the National Heritage Board's Roots record, the building was put up between 1870 and 1875 and was first known as the Christian Institute. When it was inaugurated as the Malay Church in 1894, it became the first Straits Chinese Methodist Church in Singapore, and it later housed Methodist Girls' School. The board designated it a historic site in 2000.

Between its church years and the arrival of Objectifs, the building had a varied life. A heritage profile of the site notes that it was used as a restaurant during the Japanese Occupation and as a car workshop in the 1980s. Standing inside the chapel today, with its pitched roof and arched windows, it is hard to picture either, which makes the building's survival on a busy city corner all the more striking.

Objectifs itself was established in 2003 by Emmeline Yong, now its Centre Director, and Dawn Teo, who chairs its board. The centre describes itself as a visual arts space that champions photography and film through exhibitions, education and a small retail shop. The Lower Gallery, the shop, the workshop lab and the offices sit in the two-storey building beside the chapel, facing Fortune Centre across Middle Road.

The next public date is Group B, on Saturday 12 December 2026, from 2 pm to 5 pm, in the Objectifs Workshop Space. It is a single three-hour session priced at S$80, and the earlier October group filled up, so it pays to book soon. The class is eligible for SG Culture Pass credits, so Singaporeans can put their credits toward it.

Over the afternoon, participants learn four structures: dos-a-dos, also called back-to-back binding, pamphlet binding, four-hole stab binding and link stitch binding. Each suits a different kind of project. A pamphlet is perfect for a short photo series, a dos-a-dos joins two booklets that share a back cover, a stab binding holds loose prints, and a link stitch makes a thicker book that opens flat on a table.

The tutor is Ng Hui Hsien, an artist, educator and curator whose own practice includes The Weight of Air, a hand-stitched artist book. Having an artist-bookmaker lead the session means the focus goes beyond neat stitching to how a sequence of images reads when bound, which is exactly what photographers need when they turn a project into an object.

The workshop is open to all skill levels. Each participant receives a complete bookbinding tool kit to take home along with the custom books they make, which removes the usual hurdle of buying awls, needles and a bone folder before you can practise. Many people find that the tool kit is the real value, because the four structures are simple enough to repeat at home once you have done them once with a teacher.

If you want the books to hold your own work, bring a small stack of prints or photocopies trimmed close to A5 or smaller. Binding a few of your own images on the day turns a craft lesson into a first draft of a photobook, and the tutor can advise on which of the four structures suits the sequence you have in mind.

Objectifs also runs a photo-walk and zine-making course this season, Lost, Found, and Everything In-Between, taught by Aparna Nori. It takes place off-site at the ground-floor library room of Joo Chiat Community Centre, across two sessions totalling five hours, for S$15. Group 1 meets on 7 and 14 November and Group 2 on 28 November and 5 December, from 4:30 pm to 7 pm, and it is open to ages 16 and above.

Back at Middle Road, the shop stocks books by Singapore and international photographers alongside a selection of zines, such as Urban Transformers by Feranda Chua at S$28. Browsing the shelves before or after the bookbinding class is useful research. Look at how other photographers have sequenced, folded and bound their work, then try the same idea with your own prints.

Exhibitions at Objectifs are free to visit, and the Chapel Gallery gives the work a rare setting inside a 19th-century church. Arriving an hour before the workshop gives you time to walk through the current show in the chapel and the Lower Gallery without rushing.

As a centre for both photography and film, Objectifs also keeps a film library alongside its photography programme. Pairing a free exhibition with a bookbinding class makes a full Saturday, and it puts the craft in context, since many of the photographers on the walls have produced books of their own.

Objectifs lists three nearby stations: Bras Basah MRT on the Circle Line, Exit E, about five minutes away; Bencoolen MRT on the Downtown Line, Exit A, also about five minutes; and Bugis MRT, Exit C, about ten minutes on foot.

Walk a block up Waterloo Street to Kwan Im Thong Hood Cho Temple at 178 Waterloo Street, where devotees gather to pray to the goddess of mercy. A little further along the same road, the National Design Centre at 111 Middle Road occupies the former Saint Anthony's Convent. Book lovers should finish at Bras Basah Complex, 231 Bain Street, a building known for its many bookstores, including secondhand specialists such as Evernew Bookstore.

Address: Objectifs – Centre for Photography and Film, 155 Middle Road, Singapore 188977. Gallery and retail hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 12 pm to 7 pm, and Sunday, 12 pm to 4 pm, closed Mondays and public holidays.

Prices from the official course pages: the Bookbinding Workshop on Saturday 12 December 2026 is S$80 for one three-hour session, with a tool kit included and SG Culture Pass accepted. The Katong-Joo Chiat zine course is S$15 for two sessions. Exhibitions are free. Seats for workshops are limited and the October bookbinding group sold out, so register early through the Objectifs website.