The recent conservation of the Golden Mile Complex signals a watershed moment for modern heritage in Singapore, but also indicates a constant threat of urban redevelopment, and the conversation about its significance should shift towards the district it sits in. The Golden Mile District and the Golden Mile Tower are thus adaptively reused and reimagined into an alternative downtown in contrast to Singapore’s uniformed global landscape, and a cultural playground for the unique transient migrant and subcultural communities and activities that reside in the district.

Historically, the district was and continues to be a site of contestation between the global city ambitions of the Singapore government and the social city agenda of architects and activists. The visions eventually fell flat and the district was taken over by the Thai transient migrant groups and later subcultures, qualities that are increasingly rare or threatened in the urban sphere.

To celebrate and proliferate these qualities, a series of lightweight steel parasitic structures attach themselves to the spatial anchors of the Tower, extending from the outside and piercing into the building, creating a series of additive spaces that allow for change over time. The building and new spaces are re-aggregated into the following programmatic anchors: Discotheque, Subcultural Hub, Market, Community Hub, Creative Hub and Heritage Hotel. These create a new series of spaces where not only the transient migrants and subcultures, but the general public too can negotiate their identities. These new platforms for cultural expressions strengthen the character of the Tower and the district, establishing a new cultural cornucopia into the future.