On People's Park Complex

I remember my grandma and me taking a bus down from River Valley to shop here. She would buy jewelery and herbs while holding onto my hand tightly, fearing that she would lose me amongst the crowd that packed the stores during the day. I didn't really enjoy going there then, there were no toys, I had to sit in herbal stores all day, but I do remember the food, it was good and I grew up on the carrot cake there.




A Large mixed used development with offices and high rise apartments over a podium shopping space. Constructed in 1967, designed by Design Partnership (now DP Architects) that was just set up by William Lim with Tay Kheng Soon and Koh Seow Chuan. Located at the foot of Pearl's Hill (within viewing proximity of another architectural gem: the Pearl Bank Apartments), People's Park Complex sits in the very heart of Chinatown and was once the largest shopping complex on Eu Tong Sen Street.




"Its name as well as the block of flats was the closest to Le Corbusier's ideal of high-rise living, as expressed in his Marseilles Unité d'Habitation, both in concept and in form"

Jane Beamish, Jane Ferguson (1989), A History of Singapore Architecture: The Making of a City



The original exterior finishing of the building was exposed raw concrete (ref Brutalist Architectural Style) but has been receiving several paint jobs constantly over the years. Currently, its green and orange but personally i rather the Béton brut.

The authorities should really look at Boston City Hall to see how beautiful raw concrete is. A paint job doesn't really do any good, let alone the choice of mismatching colours, but that's just personal taste.



Multi-storey interlocking atriums, "City Rooms" that bring the bustle of a busy chinatown street indoors. A first in Singapore architecture back then and now a common sight in almost any Singaporean shopping centre.

ref 1960's Metabolist Movement by Japanese Architects

"But we theorised and you people are getting it built!"
Fumihiko Maki , who visited the site during its construction


Walking back there now reminds me of those older times, where this was the place to be (and not Orchard road).That feeling of nostalgia although cliché overwhelms me. Its worth paying a visit here to soak up the atmosphere and feel the hustle and bustle of 1960s Chinatown.

Lets all just hope its survives the en bloc rage that continues to destroy the more 1960's architectural gems