THE

ABRIDGED
POCKETBOOK
OF
BRUTALIST
ARCHITECTURE
IN
SINGAPORE
All rights reserved National Library Board,
Singapore (NLB) 2013

Text & Design by: studioKALEIDO

Published by:
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The opinions express in this publication

are solely those of the author.

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and designs presented in this book, as well
as the book in its entirety, are protected
by the copyright and intellectual property
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ISBN: 978-981-07-7045-7

This work was exclusively created for the

Singapore Memory Project
www.SingaporeMemory.sg
What is it about Brutalist architecture that makes it so
“unloved”? Beyond its mass and geometry is a ready
association with Brutalism and the worst of top-down mass-
planning propensities in Western cities in the 60s. Yet was it
not once truly born of a utopian socialist bent? There is more
than meets the eye, from Brutalism’s abstract geometries to
its frank exposure of function, from Le Corbusier’s Secretariat
Building in Chandigarh, India, to Erno Goldfinger’s Trellick
Tower in London (said to have been the inspiration for J.G.
Ballard’s dystopian novel High Rise).
Singapore has its fair share of Brutalist monuments.
BRUTARCH provides an introductory survey and a DIY paper-
craft kit of ten Brutalist/Brutalism influenced buildings in
Singapore, as a miniature skyline against which one may (re-)
consider the generalised ill-will towards Brutalism, and to
learn to read the socio-historical architectural patrimony of
our city.
3
INTRODUCTION
TO BRUTALISM
Spawned via post-war modernism, Brutalist architecture was characterised by bold
geometries, the exposure of structural materials, and functional spatial design. It was
considered an expression of social progressivism and became a favoured style for public
architecture from the 1950s to the mid-1970s. Despite its apparently appropriate name—
critics of Brutalism often level charges of it being “cold”, “hulking” and “inhuman”, projecting
an atmosphere of totalitarianism—Brutalism is in fact derived from the French term béton
brut, which translates to “rough concrete”, rather than from “brutal” as an adjective.
    As an architectural style, Brutalism was initially applied largely to government buildings,
low-rent housing and shopping centres to create functional structures at a low cost—
especially in the post-war, mid-20th century which saw many economically depressed
communities—but eventually, designers adopted the look for other uses such as college
buildings, even when they had budgets that would have covered far more than the utilitarian.
    Brutalism goes beyond merely being an architectural style. As an architectural philosophy,
it was often associated with a socialist utopian ideology. Insofar as architecture can be
political, designers that practised Brutalist architecture near the height of the style were
often vocal about the ideals and merits of Brutalism—its ‘honesty’, sculptural qualities,
and the uncompromising, anti-bourgeois nature of its style.
    In theory, Brutalism was championed as a positive—if not altogether revolutionary—
option for forward-moving, modern urban housing. This was in part due to the utopian
ideals—or delusions—of Le Corbusier, now considered one of the pioneers of modern
architecture, and the architect responsible for the most notable early works of Brutalist
architecture: Unité d’Habitation (1952) and the Secretariat Building (1953) in Chandigarh,
India. Expounding on his ideas for a “vertical garden city” and the house as a “machine for
living”, Le Corbusier pushed his vision of “streets in the sky”—social housing characterised
by broad aerial walkways in long concrete blocks—towards what would, in part,
become Brutalism.
    In practice, however, many of the buildings built in this style lacked many of the
community-serving features of Corbusier’s vision, and instead, developed into claustrophobic,
crime-ridden tenements. Often fortress-like and blockish, many critics leveled charges at
the abstract nature of Brutalism being unfriendly and uncommunicative, instead of being
integrating and protective, as its proponents intended.
SINGAPORE &
The buildings highlighted here are not an exhaustive list of Brutalist/Brutalist-influenced
architecture in Singapore, but instead allow for a broad sweep across use and architects/
studios, as a varied socio-historical survey.

BRUTALISM
    Singapore came to the Brutalist party as its popularity in the West was beginning to
decline (as a result of positive communities failing to form in some Brutalist Structures).
With the vision of early post-independence Singapore being very much that of a modern
socialist state, it is not difficult to see how Brutalism’s ethos and aesthetics were, for the
moment (late 60s) – (early 70s), highly appealing to architects practising then, before a
move towards global capitalism and corporatism from the early 80s onwards saw the style
gradually falling out of favour.
    “Unloved” is a word that is commonly seen in the international press when it comes to
Brutalist buildings. Yet the physical assertions of early Singaporean architectural identity
via Brutalism have mostly stood the test of aesthetic rigour against time. These buildings
have, by and large, not been tainted by the same sort of urban decay, claustrophobia and
forebodingness as other Brutalist monuments in other parts of the world. Singapore’s
Brutalist masterpieces have been praised by critics as varied as Pritzker Architecture Prize
laureate Fumihiko Maki, and architectural historian Reyner Banham. It is the commercial
wrecking ball that threatens Brutalist masterpieces in Singapore, rather than the
degradation of the buildings proper, a permeating disuse or sense of stylistic passé.
Before younger generations of Singaporeans have even acknowledged the debt of the
pioneering architects and come to appreciate the hulking intricacies and conceptual play
of Brutalist architecture, some of their ilk have already been erased from her landscape.
    Ann Beha, known for her sensitive conservation and conversion projects, said that “the
adaptive re-use of Brutalist buildings is difficult because of the nature of those structures”,
and that “the most difficult part of preservation is the recent past”. The heightened danger
here is that Singapore is a young nation whose entire history can perhaps be said to be “the
recent past”. There is a mindful and urgent need for a greater awareness of the architectural
markers of this recent past, so that current and future generations of Singaporeans can
locate monumental talismans of physical heritage to tether themselves in relation to the
city-state and the social history of her built environment. If these bricks are pulled from
under our feet even as we attempt to step on them, how will we ever move forward in
understanding ourselves, and where we came from?

4
PEOPLE’S
PARK COMPLEX
Height: 103 metres
Floor count: 31
Completed: 1973
Use: Mixed (commercial and residential)
Architect: DP Architects
Location: Chinatown, Outram
Coordinates: 1° 17’ 02.6” N 103° 50’ 31.8” E

Originally cast in béton brut (raw concrete) in keeping with the Brutalist aesthetic,
People’s Park Complex was later painted over in sea green and burnt orange. The
design of the tower, podium and circular potholes topping the residential block reflect
the Brutalist aesthetic.

Completed in 1973, People’s Park Complex draws closely on Le Corbusier’s principles

of Unité d’Habitation, most famously presented in his Radiant City, a mixed-use
apartment block with residential housing, shops and communal facilities, in Marseille,
France.

People’s Park Complex was the first shopping complex of its kind in Southeast
Asia, and was designed by William Lim, Tay Kheng Soon and Koh Seow Chuan of DP
Architects to vivify Chinatown—one of the most overpopulated areas of Singapore
following independence.

The socialist slant in the naming of People’s Park Complex and its common area
facilities were in line with Le Corbusier’s deep belief in architecture as a socialist
means of revolution, as well as his penchant for “vertical streets”.

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MAKE YOUR OWN
PEOPLE’S PARK COMPLEX
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

6
PEARL BANK
APARTMENTS
Height: 113 metres
Floor count: 38
Completed: 1976
Use: Residential
Architect: Archurban Architects Planners
Location: Chinatown, Outram
Coordinates: 1° 16’ 59.4” N 103° 50’ 22.4” E

Imprinted in the public consciousness for its resemblance to a horseshoe, Pearl

Bank Apartments is a 38-storey hollow three-quarter cylindrical tower. With a total
occupancy of 1,500 persons, the building had the largest number of apartments
contained in a single block in 1976, and had the highest density of any private
modern residential building at 1,853 persons per hectare.

Pearl Bank Apartments was the tallest residential building in Singapore when it was
completed in June 1976. It was the first purely residential project undertaken by
the Urban Renewal Department as part of the Housing and Development Board’s Sale
of Sites programme.

There is a shopping area with seven units on the first storey, while the 28th storey,
known as the Sky Park, is devoted to communal use. The amount of thought Tan
Cheng Siong of Archurban Architects Planners gave to the effect of the split-level
architectural approach in the spatial planning is apparent in a number of ways:
each apartment unit is zoned into “public” and “private” areas to offer maximum
exclusivity and views to the occupants. The utilities and service areas are located
at the rear of the apartments, overlooking the building’s central courtyard, to avoid
any obstruction of the view. Additionally, the opening in the circular structure faces
west and minimises direct penetration of heat and light from the afternoon sun into
the building. The slits in the circula slab also allow for effective ventilation into the
internal courtyard.

Pearl Bank Apartments was also originally cast in in raw, unpainted concrete, the
traditional Brutalist aesthetic finishing. The building was painted over in cream with
orange details in 2008.

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MAKE YOUR OWN
PEARL BANK APARTMENTS
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

8
GOLDEN MILE
COMPLEX
Height: 89 metres
Floor count: 16
Completed: 1973
Use: Mixed (commercial and residential)
Architect: DP Architects
Location: Beach Road, Kallang
Coordinates: 1° 18’ 9.8” N 103° 51’ 53.9” E

In 2006, Golden Mile Complex was described as a “vertical slum”, “terrible eyesore”
and “national disgrace” by Nominated Member of Parliament Ivan Png.

On the other hand, Fumihiko Maki, a Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, has termed
Golden Mile Complex a “collective form”, while Reyner Banham, an architectural
historian, has praised it as a rare feat of a “megastructure”, of which few have been
realised in the world.

Formally, Golden Mile Complex is as much Metabolist as it is Brutalist; Metabolism

being a post-war Japanese architectural movement, which fused ideas about
architectural megastructures with those of organic biological growth. Golden Mile
Complex successfully combines the high-density usage and diversity lauded by
Metabolism. Designed as a “vertical city”—as influenced by Le Corbusier—Golden Mile
Complex stands in contrast to homogenised cities where functional zoning can often
subdue vitality.

With its extruded section stretching along the East Coast and facing the sea
(before the land was reclaimed), Golden Mile Complex was designed to catalyse
urban development along Beach Road. It houses 411 shops, 226 offices and 68
residential units, and is known to be a Thai enclave, with numerous Thai eateries,
clubs and a supermarket.

Golden Mile’s terraced profile reduces the impact of noise from traffic, and
also affords upper-floor residents a panoramic view of the sea and sky, with all
apartments featuring balconies. The narrowness of this sloping slab form enhances
natural ventilation and shades a lofty communal concourse above the podium
along Beach Road. Golden Mile was an architectural innovation of its time,
preceding by several years, avant-garde terraced buildings in Europe
and the United Kingdom.

10
MAKE YOUR OWN
GOLDEN MILE COMPLEX
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

11
SINGAPORE
POWER BUILDING
(TRIPLEONE SOMERSET)

Height: 100 metres

Floor count: 17
Completed: 1977
Use: Commercial
Architect: Group 2 Architects
Location: Somerset Road, Orchard
Coordinates: 1° 18’ 01.5” N 103° 50’ 14.0” E

With its signature inverted ziggurat motif and fins, the Singapore Power Building has been
compared by critics to Gerhad Kallmann’s Boston City Hall (1962) and Le Corbusier’s La
Tourette monastery (1957-60). It houses the corporate headquarters of Singapore Power
and was earlier known as Singapore Power Building until 2008 when acquired by YTL
Corporation Pacific Star.

Originally known as the Public Utilities Board, an open-call contest for the design of the
PUB’s corporate headquarters was launched in 1971. Group 2 Architects (now-defunct),
won the pitch with a proposal that, in the words of the jury, allowed “natural form and
function to achieve character and dignity” for the building. This was in comparison to the
proposals of the other three finalists, whose proposals had the intention of projecting a
corporate presence with imposing towers.

Bucking the trend of using tall towers to signal a corporate ethos, Group 2 Architects instead
emphasised the horizontal to great effect. The building’s horizontal emphasis is achieved
with staggered rows of vertical fins, that also serve the practical purpose of drastically
reducing sun exposure. The inverted ziggurat continues to highlight the horizontal aspect of
the building. This horizontal emphasis also imbued PUB’s headquarters with approachability,
as befitting of its role as a public supplier of gas and electricity.

The building was completed in 1977 and then underwent an adaptive restoration in 2006,
with the towers updated from a two-tone mosaic to sleek metal panels, and the monumental
base broken up to allow greater street-level permeability. The transformation into the
TripleOne Somerset is looked upon by international architects and conservators as a
relatively successful restoration that updated the environmental performance of the building
even as it retained most of its original architectural character, in a time and age where many
Brutalist monuments are in danger of being unappreciated and destroyed.

12
MAKE YOUR OWN
SINGAPORE POWER BUILDING
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

13
PENINSULA
PLAZA
Height: 116m
Floor count: 30
Completed: 1980
Use: Commercial
Architect: Alfred Wong Partnership Private Limited
Location: North Bridge Road, Downtown Core
Coordinates: 1° 17’ 32.305” N 103° 51’ 1.591” E

Peninsula Plaza’s architect, Alfred Wong, is considered one of the leading pioneers
of architecture in Singapore. Wong was born in Hong Kong in 1930 and studied in
Melbourne, after which he set up Alfred Wong Partnership in Singapore in 1957.
His architectural vision played a big role in the development of modernism in
Singapore. Modernism in Singapore was closely tied to her nationalist spirit, having
gained self-governance in 1959: beyond a matter of aesthetics, it was consciously
applied as a means of departing from the colonial legacy which often consisted of
“tropical-colonial” frames of references. With his numerous commissions in public
architecture, Wong shaped in equal parts the aesthetic of modernism in Singapore—
at a time where there was yet to be an understanding of the word “modern”—as well
as the physical landscape.

When the Singapore Institute of Architects presented Wong the first SIA Gold Medal
Award in 1998, the committee specified the necessity of understanding the context
of seeing Wong’s work “against the backdrop of decaying shop houses and urban
fabric” in which he began practising architecture.

Amongst his built designs are the famed National Theatre (1964, torn down in 1986),
Singapore Polytechnic (1979), and the Marco Polo Hotel (1968, torn down in 1999).
Peninsula Plaza, completed in 1980, is one of his existing buildings, and a familiar
sight imprinted upon Singapore’s architectural memory of the area.

With 30 storeys of office space nestled on a two-tiered podium and strong and
elegant linear motifs, Peninsula Plaza’s delineations nodded towards the Brutalist
mixed-use ideal as well as in its geometric aesthetics. Peninsula Plaza has come to
be known as somewhat of a Burmese enclave, with Burmese provision stores and
eateries, as well as a fair smattering of electronics stores on the upper floors and
fashion ones in the basement.

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MAKE YOUR OWN
PENINSULA PLAZA
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

15
SHAW
TOWERS
Height: 134 metres
Floor count: 35
Completed: 1974
Use: Commercial
Architect: Van Sitteren & Partners
Location: Beach Road, Bugis/Rochor
Coordinates: 1° 17’ 47.386” N 103° 51’ 23.65” E

One of the visual themes of a Brutalist structure is the exterior exposure of the
building’s functions. Shaw Tower’s cantilevered sections of office space sitting atop
a mid-level open-air carpark and a podium with a now-defunct cinema, and two
sprawling floors of retail, offer a clear exterior demarcation, and are also testament
to Fumihiko Maki’s notion of the “collective form”, where people could (live,) work,
shop and play—all in a single development, which expresses the philosophical side of
Brutalism as a socialist utopian ideology.

Shaw Towers was designed by Iversen Van Sitteren and Partners, a Dutch
architectural practice founded in Malaya in 1948, for Shaw Organisation, a film
distributor and movie-theatre chain operator. Before the completion of OCBC Centre
in 1976, Shaw Towers was one of the tallest buildings in Singapore in the 70s. Its
orderly, repeated sections have cemented it in the public memory of the Bugis area.

Shaw Organisation managed single-screen cinemas until the late 1980s, when
it decided to build cineplexes, which would offer consumers more flexible and
varied choices. Their first cineplexes, named Prince and Jade, were constructed in
Shaw Towers, opened in February 1988, and closed in 2009 after 21 years. Shaw
Towers continues to operate today as a mixed-use development, albeit without the
functioning cineplex.

16
MAKE YOUR OWN
SHAW TOWERS
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

17
ENVIRONMENT
BUILDING
Height: 103.52m
Floor count: 25
Completed: 1986
Use: Commercial
Architect: Public Works Department
Location: Scotts Road (Orchard)
Coordinates: 1° 18’ 38.059” N 103° 50’ 10.568” E

As the headquarters of the National Water Agency, the building comprises two
soaring, tiled towers flanking a contrasting and gleaming midsection of orderly,
tinted fenestration, with a sprawling, interconnecting podium with lower cylindrical
structures—the interior use being exposed by its exterior expression.

The architect for the Environment Building is listed as the Public Works Department.
The Public Works Department has a history that stretches all the way back to 1883
(then known as The Public Works and Convicts), when the first Superintendent of
Public Works was appointed to build infrastructure and public buildings for the newly
developing Singapore. The Public Works Department was corporatised in 1999, and
has operated as the CPG Corporation since 2002.

With Singapore’s self-governance in 1959 and independence in 1965, the modernist

spirit of early local architecture was a means by which for a fledgling country could
assert its identity. As then-State Minister for National Development, Dr. Vivian
Balakrishnan said in a speech: “Building in the modern style was also a statement
that we were breaking away from the old colonial society, which was riddled with
inequality and vast disparities of wealth and living conditions. Architecture, often
seen as a manifestation of a society’s values, thus mirrored that break from old
values and the warm embrace of the new values and ideals of an independent and
egalitarian Singapore.”

The vision of modern Singapore in her early years of independence (1965–early

70s) was that of a modern socialist state, and the philosophical underpinnings
of Brutalist architecture had always been closely tied to utopian socialism. There
was an international wave of publicly commissioned Brutalist structures in Europe
and America from the 50s through to the 70s, and whilst architects in Singapore
embraced Brutalism belatedly, the brief window of time still engendered notable
Brutalist gems, such as the publicly commissioned Environment Building.

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MAKE YOUR OWN
ENVIRONMENT BUILDING
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

19
OCBC
CENTRE
Height: 197.7 metres
Floor count: 52
Completed: 1976
Use: Commercial
Architect: I.M. Pei & Partners, with BEP Akitek
Location: Chulia Street, Downtown Core
Coordinates: 1° 17’ 7.664” N 103° 50’ 57.215” E

Designed by the renowned I.M. Pei (now Pei Cobb Freed & Partners), the OCBC
Centre was the tallest building in South East Asia in 1976, at 197.7 metres
and 52 storeys in height. A familiar sight of the Singapore skyline, the OCBC Centre
—serving as the headquarters for OCBC Bank—has earned the affectionate
nickname “The Calculator”, for its flat shape and windows on each
cantilevered section, which look like button pads.

The OCBC Centre is made up of two semi-circular reinforced concrete cores and
three lateral girders which sped up construction—the building took only two years
to be completed due to a three-tier system, which featured three huge intermediate
transverse girders supported by a heavy structural frame, an innovation in
architectural technical know-how at that time. With a design symbolic of strength
and permanence, each section is cantilevered six metres away from the building.
As a visual whole, the linear effect of the OCBC Centre is in line with the blockish
Brutalist aesthetic. The Modernist architectural language of the times, aside from
the monolithic façade, can be seen in the building’s finishings of concrete tiles,
steel and glass.

Cementing its place in the annals of Singaporean architectural history, the Brutalist
OCBC Centre was marked as a historic site by the National Heritage Board in 2001. It
has also been extended with the additions of OCBC Centre East and South, without
destroying the integrity of the existing building.

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MAKE YOUR OWN
OCBC CENTRE
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

21
FUTURA
APARTMENTS
(DEMOLISHED)
Height: 77.14m
Floor count: 25
Completed: 1976
Use: Residential
Architect: Timothy Seow Studio
Location: Leonie Hill, Orchard
Coordinates: 1° 17’ 53.29” N 103° 50’ 2.875” E

Futura Apartments, designed by Timothy Seow, was the second condominium to

be completed in Singapore. At the time, it heralded a new era of luxury living in the
city-state. Futura was commonly known amongst the architecture community in
Singapore as one of the “Big Five” of architectural structures in Singapore that helped
pioneer modern Singapore architecture, and that were aesthetically and architecturally
important. Of the “Big Five”—which comprises Pearl Bank Apartments in Outram Road,
Golden Mile Complex in Beach Road, Futura in Leonie Hill Road, Beverly Mai in
Tomlinson Road and The Habitat in Ardmore Park, only Golden Mile Complex and Pearl
Bank Apartments remains, no thanks to the en-bloc frenzy.

Futura’s living spaces were boldly designed, and clearly inspired by space age
explorations. It featured three radial wings with a central staircase, with every
apartment adding to the character of the building as it was expressed as a cantilevered
“space-pod” on its façade, a strikingly repetitive angular geometry commonly used as
an architectural strategy in Brutalist buildings.

Along with Beverly Mai (also designed by Timothy Seow), Futura was among the first
to introduce the condominium principle of high-rise living and shared facilities to
Singaporeans. It was a starting point for Singaporean aspirational materialism in the
“5Cs”, as the first development in Singapore with private lifts opening directly into
the apartment, with a generous lobby transitioning between the outside to the living
spaces, not to mention its breathtaking roof views. There was special attention paid to
the transitions and the views from one room to another. Out of the 69 units, three were
duplex penthouses with roof terraces and private pools.

When we think of our architectural heritage, perhaps what first comes to mind are
grand colonial buildings and conserved shophouses. But it seems necessary to begin
thinking about mixed-use and residential structures that have indelibly left their
marks on the Singaporean consciousness and that held with them an aesthetic and
architectural importance. With three of the “Big Five” already gone, it is time newer
buildings are earmarked as well, to safeguard our architectural heritage in the future.

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MAKE YOUR OWN
FUTURA APARTMENTS
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

23
THE
COLONNADE
Height: 74m
Floor count: 28
Completed: 1986
Use: Residential
Architect: Paul Rudolph
Location: Grange Road, Orchard
Coordinates: 1° 17’ 57.291” N 103° 49’ 38.693” E

The Colonnade was designed by Paul Rudolph, a highly notable architect of the late-
modern period, and legendary dean at the Yale School of Architecture. The plans for The
Colonnade were in fact drawn from the developments of the previously designed but
unbuilt Graphic Arts Center of Manhattan.

Rudolph said in an interview with the Chicago Architects Oral History Project that the
completion of The Colonnade was the fruition of a building he had been thinking about
for 30 years, that could not be built in the United States because of the labour involved:
“The forming of the concrete is, let’s face it, very elaborate. There’s a great deal going
on in this building, for better or for worse. There are many different apartment types and
structurally and mechanically it becomes tremendously involved. I was just saying that
this was not at all off the top of my head. It’s a marvelous example of a building that I’d
really been thinking about in principle for a long, long time.”

The plan for this structure was envisioned as a set of prefabricated units hoisted onto
a structural frame. Rudolph called each replicable unit the “twentieth-century brick”,
but during construction, it was found that the prefabricated units were technically
and financially untenable. Pour-in-place concrete was thus the method used, which,
thankfully, was able to still convey the appearance of Rudolph’s design goals. The
“twentieth-century bricks” of The Colonnade also formed the network of angular
geometries as expressed in Brutalism, while its layout also allowed for a partial
exposure of the building’s functions.

24
MAKE YOUR OWN
THE COLONNADE
✂------- Print, cut along the outlines, fold along the dotted lines and glue
the tabs together.

25