Katong Shopping Centre was Singapore’s first fully air conditioned retail mall when it opened to the public in 1973. Built in a modernist style, it’s cast concrete portholes and corrugated texture share great similarities with other buildings of the era, such as Golden Mile Complex.

With an exterior that was originally raw concrete, it was spruced up with striking blue and yellow paint scheme in 1997 [1]

In its early days the mall would have had a view of the sea, before new condominiums surrounded it on the newly reclaimed land fronting East Coast Park.

As with many strata owned malls in Singapore, the interior feels stuck in a timewarp with long poorly lit corridors and oldschool shops selling I.T wares and textiles.