Stamford House and Capitol Theatre
Stamford House and Capitol Theatre are two buildings in downtown Singapore, near the culturally-active City Hall area.
They are of interest here mainly for the way in which they relate to the street.
Both buildings incorporate arcades that provide shelter to pedestrians, a standard feature on many buildings built at that time.
Because of the shops on the street level, there are many entrances into the building in the arcade.
This gives the buildings a sense of permeability, a connection between the interior and the exterior.
The display windows of the shops also give pedestrians something attractive to look at as they walk past, making the arcades a generally comfortable place to walk in.
Both are also corner buildings.
Capitol Theatre has the main entrance to the theatre in the corner, giving it a "central" point of interest with its two arcaded sides leading off beyond.
Stamford House turns the corner with a curve, and although some importance is placed on the corner entrance at the street level, this is not as evident when looking at the building as a whole.
Here's a sketch of how it works.
The emphasised corner provides one ending to each arcade, so that the arcades have an anchor.
Since the arcades also lead off into another arcade, provided by the neighbouring buildings, they essentially have an anchor at each end and are not left "floating in space".
Christopher Huang, February 2001
e-mail christopher.huang@mcgill.ca