The building's features, such as progressively receding walls, antennas, and eyes, contribute to its robotic appearance and to its practical function.

[5] Sumet designed the building in conscious opposition to postmodern styles of the era, particularly classical revivalism and high-tech architecture as embodied in the Centre Pompidou.

[7] He further dismissed high-tech architecture, "which engrosses itself in the machine while at the same time secretly...lov[ing]...handmade artifacts and honest manual labor", as a movement without a future.

[8] Sumet wrote that his building "need not be a robot" and that a "host of other metamorphoses" would suffice, so long as they could "free the spirit from the present intellectual impasse and propel it forward into the next century".

[7] He wrote that his design might be considered post-high-tech: rather than exhibiting the building's inner workings, he chose to adorn a finished product with the abstractions of mechanical parts.

[13] UOB's statements over this renovations were to bring it "into a new era while paying homage to its heritage",[13] and have been "carefully planned to balance the need for modernization with respect for the building’s original structure".

[15] On the building's upper facade, in front of the main meeting and dining rooms of the top executive suites, are two 6 m (20 ft) lidded eyeballs that serve as windows.

[9] The building's east and west walls (the robot's sides) have few apertures to shield its interior from the sun and to increase energy efficiency, and its north and south sides (the robot's front and back) are tinted curtain walls whose bright blue color was chosen because it was the symbol of the Bank of Asia.