Yishun 10
Singapore’s first multiplex officially opened on 27 May 1992 in Yishun New Town. With 10 movie halls and 2,552 seats, the three-storey Yishun 10 offered cinema-goers more choices than before.
The S$37-million complex with a floor area of 3,635 square meters was designed by architect Geoff Malone who was also a film buff and founder of the Singapore International Film Festival. He was given a brief to impress visitors with a design akin to “a rocket ship which had landed in Yishun from outer space.” Malone did just so with a box clad in metal and red as well as motifs drawn from science fiction. There were also strips of red, orange and blue neon lights that lit up at night. The colour scheme of the building was originally in blue and silver, but this was switched after the client learnt that the Chinese saw blue as a colour for funerals.
The flamboyant design was termed by some critics as a “monstrosity” that suffered from an “elephant-iasis of neon lights.” Nonetheless, the cinema proved to be very popular with cinema-goers and clocked more than three million visitors by the end of 1993. It helped the owner, Golden Village Entertainment, to stand out from the competition as a new entrant to Singapore’s cinema industry then.
According to its managing director, David Glass, the complex design expressed the company’s desire to be more high-tech and entertainment-based than its competitors. Yishun 10 indeed pioneered a suite of features that have since become standard. They include computerised ticketing systems as well as a single projection room stretching across all 10 of its movie halls
In 2010, the cineplex underwent a renovation and returned with a more muted grey colour scheme. It was also renamed Golden Village Yishun.
Location: 51 Yishun Central 1, Singapore 768794
Architects: Geoff Malone
Year: 1992
Status: Renovated; Not conserved
Sources:
Ida Bachtiar. “Yishun’s Perfect 10.” The Straits Times, 29 October 1992.
Lim, Rebecca and Ravi Veloo. “Golden Village enters KL with two multiplexes.” The Straits Times, 15 July 1994.
Ravi Veloo. “They Came. They Saw. They Conquered.” The Straits Times, 15 March 1994.
“Singapore’s first multiplex is opened.” HistorySG.
Tan, Chui Hua. Yishun Sembawang Heritage Trail. (Singapore: National Heritage Board).
Last modified on 24 August 2021. Description by Justin Zhuang.
