Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

Introduction
Neue Staatsgalerie(1984), Pompidou Centre(1977) and Golden Mile Complex(1973) are three buildings that
exemplify the ideals of creating architecture for the everyday man. They emerged out of the discussion in the
late 1920s of the need to transcribe human dynamics into the design of architecture. (Cuff, 1989, pp. xiii-xv)
Despite the recognition of the problem, much of modern architecture from the 1920s to 1960s revolved about
the idea of the creation of a new modernist form through the use of industrial technology based on
standardisation (Westheim, 1922, pp. 71-73). It was only later that people started to take into account the
human element in the designing and planning of spaces. Museums , once accessible only to the cultural elite,
needed to adapt to accommodate the growing proletariat population that had more time and power as a
result of major technological advances , challenging governments to create new cultural institutions that were
able to meaningfully engage the masses (Bennett, 1995, pp. 6,8,24). In addition, rapid urbanisation which
placed strain on city living due to the lack of land, encouraging people to think of a new organisational form of
a city starting with the reorganisation of the building to suggest a new way of life that would enrich the human
experience and spirit (Maki, 1964, pp. 3-5). These 3 buildings are exemplary solutions to an architecture

that was pre-occupied with its own aesthetics, inventing and creating new forms, yet forgetting people, the
end user of this inventions, in the first place. They are icons of how architects have returned buildings in to
the hands of the everyday man.
Architecture, Mass Production and the Rise of the Proletariat
The Bauhaus movement which initiated early discussion in the late 1920s on the relationship between form
and function questioned earlier forms of architecture which were obsessed with its aesthetics and formulaic
methods of designing a building, but showed little interest in engaging fully with the everyday man. (Wingler,
1969) Often, it was about creating grandiose and beautiful spaces, places which only the affluent could enjoy
and appreciate. The process of standardisation in construction (Westheim, 1922, pp. 71-73) was significant in
bringing about a change in this mindset as mass-production made goods increasingly accessible to the lay
person and freed up much of their time for leisurely pursuits. There was a greater discourse about the
relationships between a building and its collective form as a city. Their forms were a result of a reaction and a
progress in the concepts of past buildings in the city that they are located in. Each building seeks to find its
relationship within the the city, drawing inspiration from its cultural context. (Jencks & Chaitkin, 1982, p. 16)
Proletariat Architecture:
Proletariat Architecture is defined as buildings whose form and spatial characteristics have been shaped by its
consideration of the layman walking in the street. They seek to engage the public by redefining the boundaries
in the area to involve the pedestrian to use the space. City dwellers are invited to be intellectually engaged by
its formal characteristics, whilst the internal spatial quality of these buildings also reflects a keen
understanding of its geographical location, relating the internal spaces with the exterior view through the
careful organisation of volumes.

Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

Golden Mile Complex, Pompidou Centre and Neue Staatsgalerie are examplars of proletariat architecture,
buildings that have crafted well-loved people places.
Pompidou Centre, 1977
The Pompidou Centre was conceived as a new cultural centre that was commissioned by then prime minister
of France, Georges Pompidou. Although its form its very different from its immediate surroundings, the design
of the building is aspirational in nature..
The Boundary: Circulation Space and Connectivity within the City:
Pompidou Centre is located in Beaubourg which is in the historic centre of Paris. (Powell, 1999, pp. 102-133)
The building was conceived as a cultural centre for the masses.
The creation of the plaza, was an act of returning public space back to the public as much of the spaces in Paris
were filled with buildings that were aligned closely to the boundaries of its plot. The creation of a huge plaza in
front of the building for people to gather is an act of returning the space back to the people for civic
use.(Figure 1)
The placement of its circulation routes on its facade and the use of glass, created a connection between the
building and the city. It is as if the ground at beaubourg was bent 90 degrees, to change movement from the
horizontal axis to a vertical one. The use of curtainwalls within the building expresses the transparency of the
place, and invites people to stop their horizontal movement and to move up the circulatory space on the
facade and use its spaces.
Although Pompidou Centre is built in stark contrast to its surroundings, its thoughtful inclusion of a plaza and
the visual continuity of movement through the building allows the users to enjoy the space within and around
the building as they transit from one place to the other, yet they remain visually connected to each other.
Forms on the Facade and the Relationships to the City:
Pompidou Centre expressed a machine aesthetic that was in line with the very zeitgeist of the time: The view
that the process of industrialisation was the solution to all the world's problems. The heroic gesture of
exposing the huge structural system of the building on its facade with service pipes expressed at the rear made
the building look like a body with its guts spilled out on its outside. If one were to consider the classical
architectural style that typifies the old city of Paris, the Pompidou Centre appears out of it context.
At the same time, Pompidou Centre is taller than the surrounding buildings and this destroys the consistent
visual relationship between the earth and sky as viewed from the streets (Figure 2). Despite being so different
from its surrounding buildings, it remains more relevant than ever in its context as it signifies the start of a new
era in the country, an era where the layman's rights are respected.

Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

The machine aesthetics of Pompidou Centre's facade actually alludes to an earlier form of the Eiffel Tower
which was built in 1889 as a symbol of France's industrial power. Just as it juts out in contrast to the skyline of
the Parisian city to make a statement about the future of Paris. Pompidou Centre juts out as a symbol of
democracy as the aristocratic air of old Paris is broken with the introduction of a new and modern complex,
built for the people. (Figure 3)
Neue Staatsgalerie,1984
Neue Statsgalerie adopted a strategy of juxtaposition, adopting the forms of the old and the new, aptly setting
up this discussion between itself and the architecture in Stuttgart , and in the process creating the form of a
city in itself.
The Boundary: Circulation Space and Connectivity within the City:
In Neues Staatsgalerie, the street was tactfully integrated into part of its design, with the creation of a public
through route connnecting the two streets at the front and back of the building. (Vidler, James Frazer-Stirling Notes from the Archive, 2010)A small pavilion that extrudes out onto the street typical of the entrances to
homes is used to help pedestrians understand and relate to the huge and massive building which collaged
many different forms into its design. The creation of a through route which was a requirement of the brief
integrated the building into its surroundings by creating a public space within the building. (Figure 4)
This challenges the public's view of museums as the public are welcomed to dwell and relate to this institution
in their everyday life. This movement through the core central axis of the building creates a very intimate
relationship between the public and the museum as the museum seeks to become part and parcel of the
everyday lives of the proletariat.
In addition the museum seems to connect with the people in a playful manner as the route through the centre
involves a circular windy route which in logic is not the fastest way, but through its form it seeks to create an
unique and different experience of the city, as the public who move through this space are somehow
transported back and forth in time continually as they go through the space.
Forms on the Facade and the Relationships to the City:
Neue Staatsgalerie is sensitive to the relationship between form and memory. James Stirrling and Michael
Wilford, carefully considered the kind of reading that its form would create and through juxtaposition of
abstracted familiar forms created a building form which communicates it usage and the way of life of its
occupants. (Vidler, James Stirrling: Notes fromt the Archive) (Figure 5)
In the choice of elements to collage his design, he chose to suggest the monumentality of his building through
recalling ancient architectural forms of used in castles and palaces. The use of the Egyptian Cornice on the

Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

main U-shape mass surrounding the central drum, recalls Egyptian palaces, whilst the use of stone cladding
suggests a grand and monumental importance of the building.
For every monumental element that he adds to his building, he contradicts them by juxtaposing an opposing
idea to the associated form. The central drum of the building is an open void that recalls the spatial
characteristics of domed buildings and cathedrals like the Parthenon except that it is without a dome. In
addition, the stone-cladding of the entire structure is shown to only be a superficial layering of stone material,
which are honestly revealed with the broken wall located near the entrance of the building. The pieces of
fallen stone are even embedded into the grass in front of the museum to reinforce the false-ness of the stone
cladded walls.
To add to this contradiction, the addition of brightly coloured metallic elements of bright hues of red, blue and
green scattered throughout the form of this museum questions the seriousness imposed by the huge Egyptian
cornice.
Indeed, one almost feels cheated when entering the building beneath the arches which frames a view that is
reminiscent of walking through the ancient cities of rome, only to be confronted with a drum void.
James Sitrling de-monumentalisation of the museum helps the layman relate to the museum which used to be
a elitist institution.

Golden Mile Complex, 1974, Singapore

Golden Mile Complex was designed by William Lim, Tey Kheng Soon and Gen Eng Oon who were part of the
Design Patnership (Chii, 2005, pp. 162-165). The 16 story complex was designed to integrate work, life and
leisure into the same complex by incorporating a commercial spaces on its lower three floors, another 3 floors
along the rear half of the building with office spaces and a 12 story residential block along the front half of the
building above the shopping complex. It was designed as part of the Golden Mile development which was a
piece of underdeveloped land along beach road.
The Boundary: Circulation Space and Connectivity within the City:
Golden Mile Complex is sited on a rectangular plot between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road (Street Directory).
The building's front and rear entrances are aligned to the rest of the buildings down the street, allowing for a
continuous flow of pedestrians. This enhances the sense of connectivity and space in the city. It advanced the
idea of a vertical city, challenging pre-conceived ideas about urban planning and creating a city within its 4
walls, the experience of a city planned along the y-axis.

Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

Along Beach Road, the upper two floors of the shopping mall hangs out of the building to provide shade from
the intense tropical sun. The cool shade provided by this protrusion creates an in-between space between the
street and the mall, offering a welcome reprieve from the hot weather in Singapore and drawing locals into
the building to enjoy the amenities and services of the 360 shops in the building ranging from kiosks, coffee
shops to departmental stores. (Figure 7)
At the Centre of the mall, a central atrium is created and spans the entire longitudinal axis, providing a huge
shaded space in the city. As a huge complex, serving the needs of the working crowd, the families and the
businessman that set up shop under its umbrella, the triple volume void of the central atrium provides a nice
and cool shaded space that physically separates the front and back of the mall. It creates a space that is able to
accommodate the gathering and movement of huge volumes of people whilst maintaining a good air flow. The
creation of a huge central void is reflective of the architect's understanding of the social forces of its context,
that involves a huge population staying in the hdb blocks nearby, who will frequent the area for their needs.
Designed as a vertical city the architects created an open public space on the 12 floor of the building as an
upper level public promenade (Anderson, 2012). This huge space served as a place where residents can gather
for their early morning tai-chi classes on weekends, or where young children who lived in the residences could
play their favourite games of hide and seek and catch in a sheltered and protected area, separated from busy
pedestrian traffic and shopping activities which would have spoiled their game. The public promenade created
a space of gathering unlike the atrium as it offered users a view of the surrounding activities taking place in the
hawker centre and community centre nearby, connecting one to its surroundings.
The public could enter from the front of the building and move up the vertical circulation spine provided by
the bookend-shaped volumes at the two ends of the buildings.
Forms on the Facade and the Relationships to the City:
At the time when it was built, Golden Mile Complex towered over its surrounding architecture. It was the first
few of such a "mega-structure" that was built in Singapore (Bay, Ang, & Chen). Built in the early years of
Singapore's national development, the complex was to become an examplar of how the city would plan future
homes and spaces. Its brutalist treatment of raw concrete recalls the earliest types of mass housing projects
built in Singapore - the SIT flats (Chee & Pak, 2013, pp. 123-131). The geometric forms of pre-war SIT flats
found in the areas of Tiong Bahru and Queenstown in the past were clean, simple and modern, with
protruding sun shades that were jutting out of the window. The sites of these 3-4 storey pre-war flats were
built with many blocks of the same type being repeated across an allocated area.
The form of Golden Mile Complex, is like the amalgamation of this SIT flats stacked a-top each other and
having its sun shades replaced by the overhanging floor of the block above. It respects the tropical heritage of
Singaporean architecture that was a reflection of the needs of the people for sun-shade and ventilation. The
simple rhythmic repetition of terracing modules on the facade creates a visual interest that is similar to that

Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

seen on pre-war SIT flats. The only difference between the two is in its scale. The large scale of Golden Mile
Complex requires sufficient visual complexity that recalls not just repetition but also some variations to
generate interest. Like the rhythm found in windows of the SIT flats, the patterns created on the facade of the
Golden Mile Complex shows subtle variations in form that contributes to a strong visual image when see as a
whole by the pedestrian. (Figure 8)
The clean, ordered form of the building makes it easy for people to understand the building which is
collectively made up of 3 large and distinct elements - the slop terraced homes, the horizontal block of
shopping and office spaces as well as the two side circulation spines. The massive tri-partite collective form of
the building reminds locals of the three main types of spaces found in the building - commercial, residential
and office space.
In addition, the use of terracing helps to reduce the massiveness of the size of the megastructure, making it
less imposing and more personable to the user.
The use of forms that were easily relatable to the locals created a space that was very well-received by the
locals at the time that it was built.
Internal Spatial Characteristics and the Relationship to its Outside:
Taking into consideration that Nicoll Highway is an expressway and has low pedestrian traffic, the architects
orientated the residential mass of the residential block towards the highway, which was also opened to
beautiful panoramic views of the sea. The consistent connection with the outdoors creates
The entire building appears to be made up of 4 masses of buildings supported on columns. The use of columns
together with its terraced form allowed for an openness in the centre of the building that helped with the
ventilation of the central space.
Conclusion
These three buildings have applied different strategies in defining its site and reinterpreting the space given,
but all of them have given careful thought to the relationships between the street and the building, blurring
the lines between spaces that belongs to the public and spaces that are restricted from the public:
Golden Mile Complex may have taken a more functional approach, Pompidou an ideological approach and the
Neue Staatsgalerie a more philosophical conception of space, but all of them have been designed with people
in mind. They have returned to space in the city back to the people who live in the area and that it should be
designed for them to be able to read and understand their form. Only then does a building exist as a metaphor
of human existence, influencing the emotions linked in our souls with the images a building creates.

Proletariat Architecture: Accessible Design For the Masses

A0111078N Koh Jie Zhi

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