I’m not a huge advocate for excessive historic conservation but was sad to see several landmarks of Singaporean architecture slated for demolition this year.
Complex (right) loom over Singapore’s Chinatown district.
When renowned Metabolist architect Fumihiko Maki visited the construction site for Peoples Park Complex in the 70’s, he famously exclaimed, “We theorised and you people are getting it built!”. I lived in this building for a few years and although it’s a bit seedy and run down now, it’s still formally and conceptually stunning.
Unfortunately, it seems that the stark forms and raw materiality of the Brutalism movement have left People’s Park Complex, Pearl Bank, the Singtel building at Hill Street and Golden Mile Complex vulnerable to the same fate as many brutalist masterpieces across the world.
