Golden Mile Complex.

There we were at the crossover bridge to Golden Mile Complex. The building was rundown, dusty and dabbed with coach bus headlines and Thai disco signs. Surely, it had seen better days.

“…it merges residential, commercial and office use, all into one single full-length building. This model was conceived way before high-rise HBD, in fact HDB hubs like Duxton owe credit to this vertical city…” Said Nguyen as she swiftly sketched out the elevation over her mini card. An architecture-enthusiast, she has been a long-time fan of  Tay Kheng Soon - one of the minds behind Golden Mile complex (I have high doubt that she accounts for more than half of my excitement, everything sounds and feels different once you know the story behind).

Welcoming us was madness of markets, bars, Thai eateries, indoor picnic/gatherings straight on the floor on every corridor every square metre. It was Golden Mile complex as I’d always known it to be: dodgy, messy yet very vibrant. Here are some strange looking fish that might be related to the Merlion?

But it all started after we fought our way to a little staircase up to a single door that it came opened to us; like it was Doraemon’s Anywhere door, or the rabbit hole with two Alices excitedly jumped upon.

The building began to speak to us. It communicates through gigantic exhaust hoses, long corridors, little beveled mosaics, stepped apartments that we call “cuckcoo’s cage”, Corbusian windows and whatnots. All we could do is running to and fro and touching everything like a kid.

Against judgment the complex still lives up to its former function, though degraded. The upper part felt like an alienated factory in contrast with the busy commercial floors. Felt like an organic living thing. Felt like we were diving deep into our very own trove (I wonder who else would wander here to appreciate all of these? Probably not a lot.) It possesses an old charm of the bygones, granting only those who look beyond its dusty walls hidden corners and unexpected views.

And I know exactly where else had I experienced this. The children’s palace in Hanoi - where I had spent my childhood summers and relived the place many times afterwards which I described it as a time capsule. And the same goes to Golden Mile complex.

Nguyen went on to explain to me about its air ventilation, structure (Metabolism), influence (Le Corbusier) and potential expansion into a hub along Beach Road which failed to realization… with each staircase we climbed the dusk brushed on us, till we came ohhh and ahhhh-ing over the void deck high above, the magnificient view of the new stadium and Kallang River.

It is funny how a rundown building could give you so much. And more fascinatingly, how Singapore could give me so much. One minute I could not stand the thought of living in this concrete jungle for years, the other I am taken worlds away to be enthralled by its hidden treasures.

Well, c’est la vie, non?