The 280m tall high-rise on 88 Market Street, jointly designed by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group is an oasis in the bustling Central Business District of Singapore. The tower, one of tallest in Singapore, blends urban life with tropical nature, redefining and elevating workplace and living standards for its users while adding an elegant new landmark to the Singapore skyline.
Located in the heart of Singapore’s financial district, the new 93,000 m2, tech-integrated and verdurous skyscraper which includes the ‘office of the future’, a serviced residence and retail components, transforms the site of a former car park complex built in the 1980s. CRA and BIG were selected to design the 51-story high-rise following an international architectural competition hosted by Asia’s leading real estate company CapitaLand.
Rising to 280m, on par with the tallest buildings in the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District, the integrated development offers premium Grade A office space, a 299-unit Citadines serviced residence to be managed by The Ascott Limited and ancillary retail space. The tower is set to make a distinctive mark on the Singapore skyline: the building’s exterior façade consists of vertical elements that are pulled apart to allow glimpses into the green oases blooming from the base, core and rooftop. A dynamic interplay of orthogonal lines and lush greenery presents itself in the contrasting textures of steel and glass, interweaved with tropical vegetation.
"BIGs design seeks to continue Singapore’s pioneering vertical urbanism with the 280m tall diverse community of places to work, live and play inside as well as outside. At multiple elevations, the facade peels open to reveal urban oases for its users and the surrounding city - animating the elegant smoothness of modern architecture with the ubiquitous tropical nature." Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.
At the ground floor, visitors will be met by a public rainforest plaza and park. A series of spacious activity pockets invite possibilities for fitness sessions, temporary art installations or other community events. Meandering garden paths and covered passages create natural entryways into the City Room, a 19m-high generous open space at the foot of the tower. The lush exterior will be matched by an array of hi-tech solutions shaping a series of fully responsive spaces for work or leisure. Sensors, Internet-of-Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence capabilities are scattered throughout the tower which will enable the tenants to customize their experience of the building.
"At CRA, we aim to design spaces that can become settings for novel interactions. In this building, green areas are made accessible to the public at different heights, allowing the city’s exuberance to extend throughout the entire tower. Working in nature will be as essential to the experience of the building as the most advanced digital technologies, offering us a glimpse of tomorrow's offices." Carlo Ratti, Founding Partner, CRA; Director, MIT Senseable City Lab.
The City Room welcomes tenants into separate lobbies for the offices and residences, as well as shoppers and diners into the food center within the tower’s podium. The first eight floors of the tower are dedicated to the serviced residence including a wide range of facilities such as a swimming pool, jacuzzi, jogging track, gymnasium, social kitchen, residents’ lounge and barbeque pits. The top 29 floors of the tower offer premium office spaces with panoramic views to the Singapore River and Marina Bay.
At the core of the building between the hardscapes of the offices and residences are four connected levels of organic softscape, called the Green Oasis – a mesmerizing 30m open-air garden for work, casual strolls, relaxation, exercise and events. The multi-leveled oases are connected by a spiraling botanical promenade that creates multiple viewpoints of the vertical park within and the Singapore landscape outside.
The Green Oasis is a tranquil haven of winding walkways and comfortable seating areas for working outdoors or simply lounging in the shade. At about 100m above ground, the tropical garden will feature a jungle gym, treetop cocoons, sky hammocks and a café. A re-connection with nature in the sky, the Sky Terrace at the rooftop will feature cascading landscapes as well as a restaurant and Singapore’s highest urban farm.
