Category: Commercial Projects
Building Of The Year
Design Award
Jury Citation:
“At Oasia Hotel, the originality of the architects is boldly demonstrated in their unique view of architecture in our urban city. Here, the architecture breaks new ground in re-defining the role of landscape in the city, addressing tropical climate and bringing the ground plane up into high-rise buildings.
From the green facades to the various sky terraces at different levels structured around four cores at the corners of the building, to the crafting of intimate high-rise public spaces; the architects successfully explored a strong over-arching idea of the tropical integration in modern cities. The result is a joyous architectural experience.
For the achievement in pushing new ground and successfully demonstrating a new typology of architecture in Singapore, the jury panel unanimously agrees to award the Oasia Hotel, a Design Award and Building of the Year 2017. “
A verdant tower of green in the heart of Singapore’s dense Central Business District (CBD), the building is a prototype of land use intensification for the urban tropics. Unlike the sleek and sealed skyscrapers that evolved out of the temperate west, this tropical “living tower” offers an alternative image to high-rise buildings.
In response to the brief for distinct Offices, Hotel & Club rooms, a series of different strata was created, each with its own sky garden. These additional “ground” levels allow generous public areas for recreation and social interaction throughout the high-rise, despite the inner city high-density location.
Closely overlooked by surrounding towers, the tower carves out its own internal spaces and dynamic views instead of relying on external vistas for visual interest. Each sky garden is treated as an urban scale verandah, sheltered at high level by the preceding sky garden and open sided for formal and visual transparency. The openness also allows breezes to pass through the building for good cross-ventilation. The public areas become functional, comfortable, tropical spaces with greenery, natural light and fresh air.
Landscaping is used extensively as an architectural surface treatment and forms a major part of the development’s material palette both internally and externally. Achieving an overall Green Plot Ratio of over 1000%, the tower is conceived as a haven for birds and animals, reintroducing biodiversity into the city. The tower’s red aluminum mesh cladding is designed as a backdrop that reveals itself in between 21 different species of creepers, with colourful flowers interspersed among green leaves, providing food for the birds and insects. The creepers will form a mosaic with each type taking over its most suitable conditions of light, shade and wind. Instead of a flat roof, the skyscraper is crowned with a tropical bower; floral, diverse, soft and alive.
