One With Nature

Singapore is already a poster child for biophilic architecture but architects and designers are reinventing new ways of living with the natural world

- Luo Jingmei

When Jewel Changi Airport opened last year, the world marvelled at the ingenious idea of incorporating a waterfall and verdant gardens into an airport mall. This feature is not only aesthetically pleasing, it also relieves shopper and traveller fatigue. The project, which was designed by Israeli-Canadian starchitect Moshe Safdie, added to the list of noteworthy biophilic architecture in Singapore across typologies, reiterating the tiny island’s reputation as a nature-infused city state.

Among them are works by architectural firm Woha, a long-time leader in the field of biophilic design, including Parkroyal Collection Pickering, which remodels the city hotel into an oasis with 15,000 square metre of gardens and terraces, and the School of the Arts with landscape curtaining its walls. In healthcare, international architectural firm RMJM and homegrown development consultant CPG Consultant’s Khoo Teck Puat Hospital set a new benchmark with naturally ventilated wards overlooking a public park. In the realm of high-rise living, British three-dimensional designer Thomas Heatherwick’s Eden at Draycott Park, featuring greenery-draped, scalloped balconies, is a recent example that differs from ubiquitous glass-and-steel apartment blocks. Soon to come is Serie Architects’ One Pearl Bank, with 13 allotment gardens for residents to partake in gardening and whose curvaceous structure will house over 500 trees.

PIONEERING THE WAY