Bamboo Skyscraper

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Singapore I 2014

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Special Mention Award

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The project proposes the creation of a new city center that integrates city poles and areas with different character, from the urban downtown frame to the natural structure of Marina Bay generating an interface area with a predominant single element that incorporates the Singapore diversity of different flows and urban realities. In urban scale terms, the project proposes a system in which the city is open both to the waterfront and to the actual urban frame, simultaneously providing decentralization from the actual business district and spreading of future activities along the bay.

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On the other hand, the project proposes a double expansion: vertical and horizontal. The vertical expansion, 344 m, integrates the project into the current Singapore skyline and its future development. The horizontal expansion is adapting its shape to the site and urban conditions. This strategy promotes the mixed-use development and at the same time the generation of landscape areas from an urban plaza facing Nicoll Highway and Ophir Road that turn gradually into a natural park area facing Republic Avenue and the South Marina Promenade, Park and Gardens. This system allows the development of recreational uses in open public spaces, with local pedestrian, bicycle paths and parking areas. The proposal also includes a direct connection with the SMRT city system inside the building to increase the connection capability of the area with the general public transport system of the city.

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In programmatic terms, the project strategy is to create an intermediate urban space that encourages both self-containment and the mixing of uses and communities, thereby creating a new place for social interaction. In this case, the city is activated through the hybridization of architecture and urbanism, incorporating the rhythms and cycles of urban space into the interior of the building as an internalized micro-scale urban solution. This emphasizes a polychronic approach of the space with capability to operate in different time frames, blending spatial and temporal design. Incorporating the diversity of surrounding businesses, such as large corporations and vast commercial areas of the west side of the plot and small traditional shops located on the north side. The project program includes: offices, studios, residential areas, hotels, and recreational areas. 

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The construction solution proposes a system that maximizes contrast and interconnectedness between actual global construction technology and vernacular traditional solutions. This strategy of technological hybridization between high technology and traditional technology not only makes the project more sustainable in terms of cost through the use of vernacular construction solutions but also provides alternative solutions to solar protection and facilitates the development of passive systems of ventilation and temperature control.

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The bamboo facade system covers more than 70% of the total area of the facade (60,663.40 m2), considering that the climate conditions of Singapore are tropical rainforest with high degrees of intense sunlight and humidity the whole year. The combination of the bamboo system and open facade and vertical gardens in the building public areas increases natural ventilation, providing better wind flow to produce a feeling of freshness with the sea breeze and a solar protection system the whole year. The system is developed through an interweaving process, much like an open lattice system, in which the density of the bamboo frame increases in different steps and at the same time, the scale of the elements diminishes the same way. As well, the use of different bamboo species creates a color gradient effect from lighter bamboo tones to darker ones. The flexibility of the bamboo enables it to create the curvature of the elements through processes of heat and pressure.​