Unmasking the city hall facade a study of its visuality in images 23

2.2

Stageset


2.2.1

The Façade Without Body


Figure 12 Scene from the national day parade in 1998.

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Figure 13 Closing scene of the national day parade 1998.

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Fireworks rupture the darkness surrounding the City Hall façade, eliciting delighted
cheers from the spectators.1 The City Hall façade stands against the burst of fiery,
ornate designs, the protagonist to the most anticipated moment of the national day
parade (Figure 12). At the instruction of the emcee, the spectators quieten down. They
stand at full alert, while the Singapore pledge is recited. As the national anthem,
Majulah Singapura, is played, a gigantic Singapore flag is raised from the podium of
the City Hall façade (Figure 13). The anthem marks the close of the parade, and the
president makes his departure, followed by the ministers. The image of the City Hall
façade, embellished by a gigantic Singapore flag across its center, becomes the final,
lasting motif in the minds of the spectators.

Following the transition of Singapore into a self-governing state in 1959, the
Municipal Building was renamed “City Hall” in order to reflect the country’s new
political status.2 Significantly, the building played a crucial role in the events that led
to the country’s independence. It was from the prime minister’s office situated in City
Hall that Lee Kuan Yew made the declaration of independence in 1965.3 And in 1959
and 1963, it was on the City Hall steps that Lee made the declaration of selfgovernment and the Malaysian proclamation.4 After independence in 1965, the façade
inherited its function as a parade setting from colonial times, except that it was not
imperial ceremonies, but the country’s national day parades, that were now held at the

1

The following description is based on video documentation of the 1998 national day parade. National Day
Parade 1998, dir. Samantha Loh, DVD, Singapore: Mediacorp Studios, 2000.
2
Liu, Gretchen. In Granite and Chunam: The National Monuments of Singapore (Singapore: Landmarks Books
and Preservation of Monuments Board, c1996), p.63.
3
Felix Abisheganaden. “Singapore is out” in The Straits Times, 10 August 1965, p.1.
4
“The big moment…scene in City Hal as Inche Yusof takes the oath”, in The Straits Times, 4 December 1959,
p.9; “Lee’s proud moment”, in The Straits Times, 17 September 1963, p.4.

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Padang.5 Visuality remained of utmost importance, with the neo-classical
architectural forms of the façade functioning as the backdrop to parade performances.

The opening scene described above seemed typical of any national day parade held at
the Padang with the City Hall façade as a setting, except that the parade took place at

the National Stadium. Completed in 1976 and demolished in 2010, the National
Stadium was a venue for sporting, entertainment, cultural, and national events.6
Configured around a football field and an eight-lane running track, the surrounding
spectator stand provided panoramic views of the occurring events. On the year of its
completion, the stadium hosted its first national day parade. By 1985, it was
designated as a fixed parade venue that was to be alternated with the Padang.7
Crucially, as part of the national day parade celebrations in 1998, the City Hall façade
was ‘transported’ into the National Stadium as a stageset through the construction of a
replica (Figure 14). Two-thirds the size of the original, the replica of the façade was
meticulously crafted, right down to the elaborate Corinthian capitals (Figure 15).

Defined as the front of a building, the presence of a façade naturally assumes an
architectural body and a rear.8 In fact, the façade only comes into existence with the
presence of an architectural body. As Beatriz Colomina posits:

5

The national day parades were held yearly at the Padang from 1966 to 1974. Following that, it was alternated
with the National Stadium , and more recently, Marina Bay. For a comprehensive record of the venues of the
parades, please refer to Appendix B.
6
Jason Tan and Seet Sok Hwee. “National Stadium demolition nearly complete.” Available from:
accessed 16 December 2011.
7
Appendix B provides the venues at which the parades are held since 1966.
8
Definition taken from Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Available from: accessed on 16 December 2011.

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Figure 14 The City Hall façade as stageset in the National Stadium, 1998.

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Figure 15 Corinthian capitals of the replicated City Hall façade.

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The outside is only the “cover” of the book… The “value” is “contained within.” But,
once more, this inside cannot exist without the outside. The cover of an encyclopedia,
no matter how anonymous or unmarked, constructs it as an interior. But what is the
interior of an encyclopedia but a continuous outside-inside-outside?9

Colomina draws an analogy between buildings and books to illustrate the relationship
between exterior and interior, or between building elevations and the architectural
body. For Colomina, “this inside cannot exist without the outside.” The interior only
comes into being with the presence of an exterior shell. The concepts of interior and
exterior are intertwined with, and defined in opposition to each other. Similarly, the
façade, which, in Le Corbusier’s conception, functions as a projection of identity for
the building, cannot exist without an interior, or an architectural body for which it is
representative of.10 The façade is defined by the architectural body, and vice versa. A
building is “a continuous outside-inside-outside.” However, the replication of the City
Hall façade for the national day parade is a continuous exterior. In its reproduction as
a stageset, it is a façade without body.

Crucially, after the country’s independence, the façade no longer functioned as a mere
architectural setting for the parades, or a passive spectator overlooking the

celebrations on the Padang. Parade performances took place on the monumental steps
of the façade, rendering it an active participant in the parades. Transcending its role as
an architectural setting, the façade takes on the function of a stageset. The City Hall
façade thus operates as a proscenium stage on which the nation as actor is put on
display for the nation as spectator.

9

Beatriz Colomina. Privacy and Publicity: Mass Media as Modern Architecture (Massachusetts: The MIT Press,
1994), p.32.
10
For an elaboration of Le Corbusier’s conception of the façade as a projection of identity for the architectural
body, please refer to Chapter 2.1.2.

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And it is the representation of the City Hall façade as stageset for the country’s
national day parades that has dominated the reproduction of its image in postcolonial
times. As seen in the last chapter, the British had produced the image of the façade on
postcards. The reproduction of the image of the City Hall façade is thus not
unprecedented. However, after independence, the imaging of the façade took on a
new vigor. It has been reproduced in three consequent series of monetary notes
(1972,1976,1989), a short video titled 9th August (2008) by local filmmaker Tan Pin
Pin, and as a prop for the national day parade in 1998 (Figures 3,4&5) . The majority
of these images feature the City Hall façade as a stageset to the national day parade.
And in the imaging of the façade as stageset, it is represented without its architectural
body. In Colomina’s conception, “the outside is only the “cover” of the book.” What
is important is the interior, or “the “value” [that] is “contained within”” the
architectural body. In the reproduction of the City Hall façade as a continuous exterior

without an architectural body, what happens to its interior?

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2.2.2

Subsuming the Architectural Body


The 1998 parade was unique as it marked the first instance that the image of the
façade had been rooted up from its physical site to be replicated at another location.
Prior to this, while the façade as image had always been reducible, it had never been
replicated as a physical object, with its reproduction confined to media sites such as
postcards and monetary notes. And in these instances when the façade was not
imaged together with its architectural body, it was always depicted within its physical
context, or its surrounding environment. As such, the façade was always perceived as
part of a larger architectural whole, even if its body was not explicitly represented. Its
replication in the National Stadium for the 1998 parade was the first instance in which
the façade was perceived to be detached from its architectural body.

In a similar trajectory as Colomina, Le Corbusier posits that the mass, or the
architectural body, is what defines the architectural forms of the surface, or the
façade.11 The façade only comes into existence with the presence of the architectural
body, and serves as its representation. However, Le Corbusier recognises that there
are instances when
…the surfaces… become parasitical, eating up the mass and absorbing it into their
own advantage.12

For Le Corbusier, surfaces become parasitical when there is an excessive

preoccupation with visuality, or the architectural styles of facades at the cost of user
experience. The façade, which serves as a representation of the interior, ends up
feeding on the mass, subsuming the latter within its image, due to the privileging of
the visual over the experiential realm. While the surface of City Hall had always taken
precedence over its mass, or interiors since its conception in 1926, it was always

11
12

Le Corbusier. Towards a New Architecture (London: Architectural Press, 1946), p.36.
ibid, p.37.


depicted together with its architectural body in images produced by the British
colonials.13 It was only in 1976, that the façade was first represented on its own,
without its architectural body (Figure 4). More accurately, it coincided with the
depiction of the façade as a stageset to the country’s national day parades. The
subsumption of the architectural body by the façade in the national day parade 1998
was thus not unprecedented. It had been in the works for some time, and could be
discerned from its imaging in monetary notes.

The state issued its first series of monetary notes in 1972, seven years after the
country gained independence. Titled the ‘Orchid’ series, it depicted different breeds
of the flower on the front surface of the monetary note (Figure 16). Illustrated on the
back surfaces were selective representations of the country’s buildings and landscapes
(Figure 17).14 And it was on the back design of the $500 orchid series monetary note
that the City Hall façade was first featured. In the examination of the façade’s
representation on monetary notes, its symbolism is outlined along with the changes in
its stylistics of illustrations, in order to highlight the differences in meaning and use
after independence, or in postcolonial times.

With two surfaces to every piece of monetary note, each side illustrates a different
type of image. Depicted on the front designs of the monetary notes are images that
described an aspect of the nation when the respective series were issued. The front

13

For an elaboration on the privileging of the City Hall façade’s visuality over its interiors, please refer to Chapter
2.2.1.
14
For a list of buildings and landscapes that have been illustrated on the back designs of monetary notes, refer to
Appendix C. It should also be noted that the City Hall façade is the only architectural object that has been depicted
on three consecutive series of monetary notes, demonstrating its importance in the national imagination.

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Figure 16 Front design, $500 monetary note, orchid series, issued in 1972.

Figure 17 Back design, $500 monetary note, orchid series, issued in 1972.

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design also features the denomination and serial number of the currency note, as well
as the watermark, insignia, signature and seal of the Minister for Finance and the
described an aspect of the nation when the respective series were issued. The front
design also features the denomination and serial number of the currency note, as well
as the watermark, insignia, signature and seal of the Minister for Finance and the
Chairman of the Board of Commissioners of Currency to certify it as legal tender.

Thus, the front design is the signifier of the note’s primary information. On the other
hand, the back designs of the monetary notes feature images that define the nation
socially and culturally (Appendix C). These range from historic buildings to modern
infrastructures. As two surfaces of the same currency note, the symbols utilised on the
front and back design are conceptually related, capitalizing on each other to
strengthen their significance.

The medium on which the City Hall façade is featured is crucial, for it determines the
mode of dissemination of the image. It is thus significant that the British chose to
produce the façade as a postcard image, while the independent state employed the
same motif on monetary notes. As mentioned in the previous chapter, postcard images
were circulated back home to facilitate the imagination of the colony. In a similar
trajectory, the images on the monetary notes issued by the state are used to facilitate a
common national imagination through their circulation as a medium of exchange
amongst the population. Following Benedict Anderson, it is through these images that
the abstract notion of the nation becomes embodied in ways that make it tangible and
imaginable.15 The creation of a common national imagination is compounded by the
necessity of monetary notes to the conducts of everyday life. Ubiquitous and
15

For an elaboration of the use of images to facilitate a common national imagination in this study, please refer to
Chapter 2.1.1.

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quotidian in nature, monetary notes are in the possession of each and every person.
The portability of the monetary note ensures that the images depicted are circulated
around the population, thus capturing popular imagination.

Despite the potential of monetary notes to be circulated amongst a wide audience, the
$500 denomination monetary note on which the City Hall building was featured is
more symbolic than functional. Due to its large denomination, it is hardly used in
everyday transactions. In most instances, it is likely to be circulated only within an
exclusive community of numismatists.

The City Hall’s representation on the $500 monetary note is unique, however, as it is
the only instance in which the building is the primary subject of the composition. It is
depicted in its entirety, standing proudly in the centre ground against a backdrop of
swirling clouds. In contrast to its title, “Government Offices at Saint Andrew’s Road,”
the building is removed from its environmental surrounds. It is depicted as an object
removed from everyday life. Without a temporal and physical context, the only
element that situates the image of the British colonial building in the postcolonial era
is the Singapore flag posited at the top of the pediment. Small but unmistakable, the
flag occupies the symmetrical centre of the composition. Compared to the gigantic
Singapore flag draped over the centre of the City Hall façade at the closing of the
1998 parade, the assertion of the nation as a sovereign entity in this image is subtle
and cautious.

Pristine and solitary, the City Hall building is treated with utmost respect and
reverence, in a reflection of the attitude adopted by the state towards the nation’s

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colonial legacy right after independence. With no common history or culture to revive
after gaining independence, the colonial past was projected as a collective experience.
In official historiography, the historical origin of the nation was traced to Stamford
Raffles’ founding of the island in 1819. Incorporated unconditionally into Singapore’s
national history, the colonial past was cast in a favorable light, with the British

credited for initiating the development of the island as an entrepot through the
establishment of a trading station, and the creation of rubber and tin industries. British
colonisation was depicted as a historical legacy that was beneficial to the nation,
engendering the beginning of Singapore’s commercial and industrial development.

In the $1 and $10000 monetary notes of the ‘bird’ and ‘ship’ series issued in 1976 and
1989, the City Hall is similarly used to evoke the nation’s colonial past. However, two
major shifts occurred in the representations of the façade. Firstly, the City Hall
building is no longer depicted in its entirety. Instead, only the façade is illustrated.
Secondly, the two monetary notes, titled “National Day Parade” and “National Day
Parade 1987” respectively, situates the façade as part of a larger composition that
depicted a scene from the country’s national day parade.

A yearly event held on the ninth of August, the national day parade commemorates
the day on which Singapore attained its independence. Over a duration of four hours
at night, the parade stages a series of performances that surround the theme of
national unity. Repeated yearly, the performances have acquired a ritualistic nature.
While the performances purport to celebrate the nation’s independence, they are
adopted from their British imperial predecessors.16 This is especially evident in the
16

Videos of the national day parades from 1966-1968 are read against newspaper reports from colonial times. The
similarities boiled down to the rites and rituals of the parades’ and their order of procedure.

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immediate years after independence.17 In this, Eric Hobsbawn has forwarded that
“invented traditions,” or factitious rituals used to construct continuity with the past,
are fundamental to the construction of national identity.18 Besides inculcating

common beliefs and values, these invented traditions serve to establish a common
imagination of the nation.19

In the early years, the adoption of the procedures and performances from the imperial
parades were used to establish continuity with the country’s colonial past.20 It was
also utilised to subvert the traditional display of imperial domination in an assertion of
the country’s sovereignty. It was not until 1968 that the parade procedures and
performances form the colonial era were appropriated.21 And this marked the use of
the façade not just as architectural setting, but also as a stageset in the parades. From
1968 onwards, the arrival of the ministers at the parades was announced in a
processional manner. The ministers descend on the City Hall steps in two neatly
aligned rows not unlike a rehearsed performance, before filing to their seats in
orchestrated moves. As the spectator stand of the ministers, the City Hall façade is
where authority is made visible. In addition, the acting president and prime minister
ascend the steps of the City Hall façade each year to acknowledge the audience from a
podium erected in the symmetrical centre of the façade.22 Repeated over time, these
procedures have acquired a ritualistic nature, and constitute as much a part of the
parade as the performances put up by the military and civilian contingents.
17

See National Day Parade 1966, videocassette, Singapore: Radio and Television of Singapore, 1966; National
Day Parade 1967, videocassette, Singapore: Radio and Television of Singapore, 1967; and National Day Parade
1968, videocassette, Singapore: Radio and Television of Singapore, 1968.
18
Eric Hobsbawn and Terance Ranger (eds.). The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
1983), p.1.
19
ibid, p.9.
20
The observation is made based on video documentation of the national day parades from 1966-8, and newspaper

reports of the procedures of imperial parades.
21
National Day Parade 1968, videocassette, Singapore: Radio and Television of Singapore, 1968. The following
observations on the parade are made based on this source unless footnoted otherwise.
22
The observation is made from video documentation of national day parades over the years.

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Titled “National Day Parade,” the back design of the $1 note from the bird series
depicts uniformed contingents marching past the City Hall façade in the foreground
(Figure 4). In the middle ground, ministers review the parade from the City Hall
steps.23 Juxtaposed against the scene on the front design of the note is a bird named
the black-naped tern (Figure 18). Issued in 1976, the depiction of birds on the front
design of the series reflected increasing confidence in the country. High rates of
economic growths marked the 1970s, as Singapore began to reap the benefits of its
industrialisation program.24 Leaving behind the economic uncertainty of the 1960s,
birds were used to signify the potential of the nation to soar to greater heights.

And part of the change in the visuality of the City Hall façade depicted on the $1 note
can be attributed to the transformation in the country’s economic and political
conditions. In the $500 note, the neo-classical architectural forms of the façade were
treated with the utmost respect and reverence, with only the subtlest hint of the nation
as a sovereign entity. On the $1 note, however, the façade was embellished with
nationalistic paraphernalia. Flags and banderoles adorned the Corinthian columns of
the façade. For the first time, ministers were also depicted sitting on the City Hall
steps.

With the development of a successful manufacturing sector and the economy

registering double-digit growths each year, emphasis was given to construct the

23

While the faces of the people sitting on the City Halls steps cannot be discerned from the illustrations, only the
ministers have occupied the City Hall steps over the years.
24
Singapore Economic Development Board. “The 1970s: the move into skills-intensive industries” Available
from: accessed on 4 June 2010.
All subsequent information on Singapore’s economy in the 1970s is referenced from this source.

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Figure 18 Front design, $1 monetary note, bird series, issued in 1976.

Figure 19 Front design, $10000 monetary note, ship series, issued in 1989.

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nation as a sovereign and independent entity, as the country moved away from its
colonial past. Thus, on the $1 note, the façade, or the symbol of the country’s colonial
past, was no longer the sole subject of the composition, but relegated to the
background of the composition.

Even though the façade is no longer the main subject of the composition, its
importance as the symbol of the country’s colonial past remains undiminished. This is
demonstrated by its continued role as the setting to the national day parades up to the
present (Appendix B). By crediting the founding of the island to the British, the

façade is the visual manifestation of a significant part of Singapore’s history. And the
illustration of the black-naped tern on the front design of the note serves to reinforce
this (Figure 18). Also known as the sterna sumatrana to acknowledge the location of
its initial sighting, it is one of the thirty-four bird species identified and named by
Raffles off the coast of Sumatra in 1822. Through its allusion to Raffles, the blacknaped tern, like the City Hall façade, functions as a reminder of the country’s colonial
beginnings even as the nation takes off economically.
Significantly, the illustrations on the $1 note have a greater impact on the popular
imagination than those on the $500 orchid series monetary notes. As a smaller
denomination that is commonly used, the $1 note has a much wider circulation than
the $500 orchid series monetary note. However, one may argue that the symbolism of
the black-naped tern or the City Hall façade may not be obvious to the general public.
In this case, the City Hall façade functions as the image of authority, through its strict
and formal classical architectural forms, and its utilisation as a stageset by ministers
during the country’s yearly national day parade.

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Titled “National Day Parade 1987”, the back design of the $10000 monetary note
purports to document a scene from the national day parade held in that year (Figure
5). As the monetary note with the highest denomination in the series, the $10000 is
even more exclusive than the $500 note, catering to a privileged group of collectors,
and is hardly seen, and never circulated in everyday transactions. It representation of
the City Hall façade, however, is worth studying for it adds to the understanding of
the symbolism which its image has been endowed with.

On the front design of the $10000 note is a modern bulk carrier, marking the
culmination of the series, which traces the maritime vessels that have plied the waters
of Singapore (Figure 19). The ship series also depicts the evolution of the city’s
skyline in tandem with the transformation in maritime vessels. As the highest

denomination in the series, the front design of the $10000 note features the most
modern skyline. Showcasing the central business district, it depicts a conglomeration
of high-rise office towers. The impressive skyline displays the capitalist modernity of
the nation, while the modern bulk carrier alludes to the economic and technological
success of Singapore as the world’s busiest port at the time when the series was
issued.25

Juxtaposed against the capitalist modernity illustrated on the front design of the note
is the City Hall façade on its back design. While the composition and subject matter
of the $1 and $10000 notes are similar, one significant difference distinguishes the
visuality of one façade from the other. Stretched across the parapet of the façade on
the $10000 is a banner that reads: “Together Excellence for Singapore”. While the
25

Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore. “Port operational statistics” Available from:
accessed 13 July 2011. Singapore was the world’s
busiest port until 2005, when it was surpassed by the Port of Shanghai.

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title of the back design, “National Day Parade 1987”, suggests that it is a scene drawn
from the event in 1987, no such banner was draped across the façade in actuality.26
Like the flags and banderoles that embellished the Corinthian columns in the $1 note,
the mediation of the façade’s visuality on the $10000 note is again an assertion of the
nation as a sovereign entity. Underlying the juxtaposition of the colonial and the
national within a single image on the notes is the recognition of the nation’s colonial
beginnings even as the state strives to establish the country as a sovereign entity. On
the other hand, the placement of the City Hall façade with the modern skyline and
bulk carrier in the $10000 note encapsulates within two images the entire

foundational narrative of the nation: a country that has achieved capitalist modernity
by adopting the modernising practices of its colonial predecessors.

Crucially, besides the shift in the symbolism of the façade over the years, its stylistics
of illustration also underwent several changes. The visual treatment of the façade has
gradually acquired a flatter quality over the years. In the stylistics of illustration
employed in the $1 and $10000 monetary notes, there is a progressive diminishing of
depth in the representations of the façade. While the $500 note employed high
contrast, sharp edges, and stiff shadows to delineate every entity of the façade as part
of a spatial whole, no perceptible play of light and shadow is used to create the
illusion of depth in the $10000 note. Instead, the façade is illustrated as a graphic
motif to the parade depicted in the foreground. Instead of space, it is registered as a
flat, two-dimensional image without an architectural body.

26

National Day Parade 1997, videocassette, Singapore: Television Corporation of Singapore, 1996.

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Figure 20 Liu Kang. National Day, 1967.

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Likewise, in a 1967 painting by local artist Liu Kang titled National Day (Figure 20),
the façade is similarly depicted as a flat, two-dimensional backdrop. With a lack of
detail, except for an emphasis on the verticality of the Corinthian columns, the City
Hall façade is not recognisable on its own, but only when seen in its surrounding

context of the Padang, and the Supreme Court. In doing so, the image of authority
projected by the façade’s strict geometrical forms is subverted. Instead of the face of
an institutional building in the solemn representations of the national day parade on
monetary notes, the façade becomes the backdrop of a joyous and lively scene.

Through the generous use of bright colors, Liu depicts the national day parade as a
festive event. Notably, while the only persons illustrated in the representations of the
City Hall façade on the monetary notes are ministers, Liu’s painting depicts the
citizenry. People of all races are depicted in the foreground, mingling and going about
their activities in a celebratory mood. The City Hall façade is depicted here not as an
exclusive realm of authority, but as part of the Padang, a public space enjoyed by the
citizens. However, one detail that remains constant is the representation of the façade
is as a flat, two-dimensional background without its architectural body. The visuality
of the façade comes to stand in for, or subsume, the entire building.

106