Coordinates: 1°18′09.8″N 103°51′53.

9″E

Golden Mile Complex

Golden Mile Complex (Chinese: 黄金坊 ; pinyin: Huángjīn
Golden Mile Complex
fāng) is a high-rise commercial and residential building on
Beach Road in Kallang, Singapore, within walking distance to
Nicoll Highway MRT station. The building was formerly
known as Woh Hup Complex.[1] The complex contains 411
shops and 500 parking spaces. The building is largely an
ethnic enclave for the Thai population in Singapore.[2]

Contents
History
Architecture
See also
References
External links

History
In 1966, the Urban Renewal Department of the Housing and
Development Board was formed to facilitate greater flexibility
and autonomy in comprehensive redevelopment of Singapore's General information
Central Area. The Golden Mile Complex development was the
Status Completed
result of the department's first Sales of Sites programme in
1967.[3] Type Commercial and
residential
The "Golden Mile" refers to the strip of land between Nicoll Architectural Brutalist architecture
Highway and Beach Road. It was planned by the Singapore
style
Government as a high-rise spine fronting Kallang Basin.[4]
The area used to be occupied by squatters and small marine Location 5001 Beach Road,
industries.[3] Singapore 199588
Completed 1973
Built at a cost of S$18 million and completed in 1973, the 16-
storey Golden Mile Complex is one of the early pioneers of Owner Singapura
integrating multiple operations into a single mixed-use Developments
development in Singapore. Today, the complex's shopping Management Singapura
mall houses numerous Thai clubs, shops and eateries, as well Developments
as tourist and ticketing agencies for travellers going to
Technical details
Malaysia by bus or coach.[5]
Floor count 16
Design and construction
Architect DP Architects
A minor upgrading was carried out on the Golden Mile
Complex building in 1983, when tinted glass was added to the Beach Road façade to achieve the desired
overall thermal transfer value rating. In 1986, the whole building was redecorated.[3]

In March 2006, the Golden Mile Complex was described as a "vertical slum", "terrible eyesore" and
"national disgrace" by Singapore Nominated Member of Parliament Ivan Png: "Each individual owner acts
selfishly, adding extensions, zinc sheets, patched floors, glass, all without any regard for other owners and
without any regard for the national welfare." The residents have also done over their balconies to create an
extra room.[5][6]

The Golden Mile Complex, which is located on a 99-year leasehold site starting from 1969, has been
planned to be put up for an en bloc sale. On 11 August 2018, 80% of the owners signed an agreement
agreeing to sell the complex in an en-block sale.[7]

On 22 October 2021, the Minister for National Development Desmond Lee announced the gazetting of the
Golden Mile Complex as a conserved building. The Urban Redevelopment Authority announced
incentives for potential buyers, such as allowing them to build a new tower block next to the conserved
building.[8]

Architecture
The Golden Mile Complex is a commercial and residential
development, providing offices, shopping, entertainment services and
apartment living within its podium and stepped terrace structure,
resulting in a modern architectural style known as Brutalism.[9] It
houses 411 shops, 226 offices and 68 residential units.[5] The building
was designed by Gan Eng Oon, William Lim and Tay Kheng Soon of
the Singapore architect firm Design Partnership, now known as DP
Architects.[4]
The Golden Mile Complex's
Sited on 1.3 hectares and built to a height of 89 metres (292 feet),[10] shopping mall in the atrium
the Golden Mile Complex is an exemplary type of "megastructure" houses numerous Thai clubs,
described by architectural historian, Reyner Banham. It is one of the shops and eateries.
few that have been actually realised in the world. Pritzker Architecture
Prize laureate Fumihiko Maki had called the Golden Mile Complex a
"collective form".[4] It successfully propagates high-density usage and
diversity under a broad range of ideas advanced by the Japanese
Metabolist Movement of the 1960s. The complex was designed as a
"vertical city", which stands in contrast to homogenised cities where
functional zoning restrains all signs of the latter's vitality.[4]

Conceived as a prototype for a lively environment, the design of the

Golden Mile Complex was intended to catalyse urban development
along Beach Road by employing an extruded section that would Thai shops fill up most of the
spaces in the complex
stretch along the East Coast facing the sea.[11] In terms of public
transport and accessibility, the building is serviced from the rear on
Beach Road, instead of its frontage with Nicoll Highway, with a
continuous pedestrian spine linking all buildings in the Golden Mile of Beach Road. The design was
influenced by the linear city concepts of Le Corbusier and Arturo Soria y Mata.[12]
The stepped profile of the Golden Mile Complex offers the occupants of the apartments on the upper floors
a panoramic view of the sea and sky. All the apartments have balconies, and two-storey maisonette
penthouses crown off the building. The narrowness of this sloping slab form enhances natural ventilation
and shades a lofty communal concourse above the podium along Beach Road.[4] The stepped design also
reduces the impact of noise from the road traffic. The Golden Mile Complex preceded by several years
avant-garde stepped-section buildings which were built in the United Kingdom and Europe.[12]

The lower floors contain offices and a retail mall,[12] located within staggered atria to allow natural light
into the heart of the building.[4]

In April 2021, part of the ceiling near an entrance fell off, with no reported injuries.[13]

See also
List of shopping malls in Singapore

References
1. "Singapore Infopedia: Beach Road" (https://web.archive.org/web/20070612173317/http://inf
opedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_889_2004-12-23.html). National Library Board. Archived from
the original (http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_889_2004-12-23.html) on 12 June 2007.
Retrieved 12 August 2007.
2. Tan, Kevin S.Y. (2018). "Traversing the Golden Mile: An ethnographic outline of Singapore's
Thai enclave" (https://www.academia.edu/36835010). Urbanities: Journal of Urban
Ethnography. 8 (1): 3–18.
3. Norman Edwards, Peter Keys (1996), Singapore - A Guide to Buildings, Streets, Places,
Times BooksInternational, ISBN 9971-65-231-5
4. Wong Yunn Chii (2005), Singapore 1:1 City: A Gallery of Architecture & Urban Design,
Urban Redevelopment Authority, ISBN 981-05-4467-7
5. Tay Suan Chiang (5 August 2007). "Goodbye Famous 5?: "Slum" becomes landmark". The
Sunday Times.
6. "Singapore Parliamentary Debates: 6 March 2006" (http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~ipng/pol/p
arl_2006/20060306.pdf) (PDF). Parliament of Singapore. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
7. "Golden Mile Complex gets more than 80 per cent votes from owners to launch en bloc sale
| the Straits Times" (https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/golden-mile-complex-gets-more-
than-80-per-cent-votes-from-owners-to-launch-en-bloc-sale). 11 August 2018.
8. Ng Keng, Gene (22 October 2021). "Golden Mile Complex gazetted as conserved building;
future developers to get building incentives" (https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/golden-
mile-complex-gazetted-as-conserved-building-future-developers-to-get-building). The Straits
Times. Retrieved 22 October 2021.
9. "Brutarch by iremembersg - Issuu" (https://issuu.com/iremembersg/docs/brutalist_architectur
e).
10. "Golden Mile Complex" (http://www.emporis.com/en/wm/bu/?id=106439). Emporis
Buildings. Retrieved 12 August 2007.
11. Collin Anderson (2012). Evolution of a Retail Streetscape: DP Architects on Orchard Road
(https://books.google.com/books?id=VkWS80I1um4C). Images Publishing. pp. 53–.
ISBN 978-1-86470-462-4.
12. Robert Powell (2004), Singapore Architecture, Periplus Editions, ISBN 0-7946-0232-0
13. Iqmall Hayat (2021). Golden Mile Complex Ceiling Collapses Near Entrance On 23 Apr,
Area Cordoned Off (https://mustsharenews.com/golden-mile-ceiling-collapse/).
MustShareNews.

External links
Golden Mile Complex on Emporis (http://www.emporis.com/application/?nav=building&lng=
3&id=goldenmilecomplex-singapore-singapore)

Media related to Golden Mile Complex at Wikimedia Commons

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