Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts by Herzog & de Meuron for HabitusLiving

Herzog & de Meuron’s thoughtful intervention to the historic fabric of a former police station transforms a walled-off compound into a nexus of cultural exchange.

With the ever-competing diversity of building typologies and programmes in dense urban environments, big cities often struggle with balancing the pressure of space optimisation and preservation of history. In Hong Kong, one of the densest cities in the world, the new Tai Kwun Centre for Heritage and Arts achieves the balance by adaptively reusing a collection of historic buildings while activating a historic compound with careful interventions that enable art programmes and social spaces.

When Herzog & de Meuron faced the task of revitalising the former Central Police Station, the Central Magistracy and the Victoria Prison on Hong Kong island, the design team wanted to not only preserve the history of the compound but also to create an oasis of openness and public recreation in the heart of an urban jungle. The approach demanded a careful and non-intrusive strategy to create a new public space dedicated to cultural programming via revitalisation of the existing courtyards and buildings and careful addition of new spaces conducive to contemporary art exhibitions and cultural programming.

The resulting intervention allows two new distinct building volumes to float gently above the historic buildings as careful insertions into the existing fabric of the site. Cantilevering above the adjacent structures, the new volumes maximise the buildable floor area while retaining the existing generous courtyards and circulation spaces for gathering and activity.

The new buildings are clad with a cast aluminium façade system that draws references from the scale and proportion of the existing granite blocks of the revetment wall surrounding the site. The buildings deliberately set themselves apart from the existing collection of historical buildings and create a symbiotic relationship between the old and the new. The façade, apart from drawing references from its context, is also a response to Hong Kong’s subtropical climate, addressing sun shading and rain protection. Its textural quality reduces the reflectivity and glare during the daytime.

What's behind 17A? for Going Places

Back when it used to be a prominent red-light district in Singapore, Keong Saik Road and its surround have left a lasting impression on author Charmaine Leung’s identity – impactful enough for her to write a book about her memories and experiences of the neighbourhood. 

While Keong Saik has lost not only its notorious roots but also a certain sense of community since then, the stories live on in Charmaine’s book 17A Keong Saik Road, revealing a colourful but wistful side of Keong Saik that is beginning to be forgotten. 

1. Your book name is also an address. How is this significant? 

My mother operated a brothel here when I was growing up from the 70s to the 80s. I will always remember it as a place that ‘separated’ my mother and me. We had to live apart from each other. 

Growing up in 15A Keong Saik Road

But, it is also because of this address that I had the chance to meet many amazing and courageous women who influenced my life till this day. Their spirit of resilience and how they persevered to make life work against all odds are a constant inspiration for me. 

Charmaine's grandmother and her mother posing in a studio

Today, 17A Keong Saik Road is the address of a restaurant.

Tell us more about your neighbours living in the area.

The people who lived in the neighbourhood were mainly Chinese, though a small population of Indians also lived in Keong Saik. The Chinese community were made up of clan associations and business owners who had their businesses on the ground floor units, brothel operators and ma je who worked in the brothels, ladies (dai gu liongs) who were sex workers, as well as others who needed a roof over their heads after a long day’s work. 

I lived at 15A Keong Saik Road with my nanny, and the neighbours who lived directly above our unit at 15B was a family of seven: the father was a lorry driver, his wife a fishmonger, and they had three daughters and two sons. They also made parts of their space into cubicle rooms and leased them out to a seamstress and a cosmetics salesman who worked in Outram Park. 
 
There was a great sense of community and belonging amongst the neighbours – a village-like atmosphere where everyone who worked and lived on those streets was friendly and seemed to know, or know of, one another. We could easily tell who was a gai fong (resident of the street) and who was a visitor to the area.  

What was it like growing up in Keong Saik? 

Growing up on Keong Saik was colourful. The sense of community in a village-like manner was probably the closest thing I could experience to living in a real kampung. 

Little Charmaine posing at 'her playground'

As a kid, I was allowed to run along the covered five-foot walkways on Keong Saik as long as I did not cross what the adults called my ‘boundaries’ – the junctions at Keong Saik and Kreta Ayer Road, Keong Saik and Neil Road, and Teck Lim and Neil Road – where the traffic was heavy with cars. I also got to roam the grass areas at what is known as Duxton Plains Park today. I used to run up and down the green slopes, playing catch with my childhood playmates.

Which building was a major part of your childhood?

The triangular-shaped building. It used to house Tong Ah Coffee Shop. This used to be the place where residents of Keong Saik gathered in the morning for breakfast and their daily dose of gossip. I loved having the butter and kaya toast from Tong Ah for breakfast! 

What is one thing that has not changed?

The sheltered ‘five-foot ways’. It is the one thing that has not changed for me in Keong Saik no matter how the inhabitants of the street, residents or business, have evolved over time. 

I still feel that same ambience I used to feel walking under these covered walkways today. This is especially around the area near the Chinese temple located at 13 Keong Saik Road where, as a child, I used to look up at the large lanterns hanging above me as I passed them.

What is your one favourite building in the neighbourhood?

It is the building at 15 Keong Saik Road but not because I used to live there! 15 Keong Saik Road has what I would consider the best view of the entire Keong Saik stretch. It is situated at the intersection overlooking the three streets of Keog Saik, Jiak Chuan and Teck Lim Road. It was very good for people-watching. Today, it houses the Singapore office of ARD German Radio and TV.

What is one particular memory of the place that does not exist anymore?

Instead of thinking of a place, a whole community of ma je who was living and working on Keong Saik comes to my mind. They used to be such a common sight in the Keong Saik area and in Chinatown. 

Ma Jie celebrating at a gathering

The friendships they had with each other left a deep impression on me – they were always looking out for one another, and coming to the rescue of their ‘sisters’ in need. Today, very few of them are left, and the last of them are probably in their nineties. They are a part of our history that will be forever lost.

What building has been particularly well preserved over the years?

The Chinese temple at 13 Keong Saik Road looks exactly like how I remembered it when I was growing up, and when I revisited the area in early 2000s. Although it did not add any fresh colours of paint like some of the other shophouses in Keong Saik did, it is well preserved over the years and has stood the test of time.

How do you feel about the evolving changes in the neighbourhood? 

What I miss is the old neighbourhood with the people who used to live in Keong Saik. Today, it is a very different community, made up mostly of businesses, restaurants and cafes. I don’t think many people live in Keong Saik anymore. In that sense, it will never be the same Keong Saik for me. 

However, I am glad to see the conservation efforts in the area. In Singapore, many old buildings have been demolished to make way for new developments. At least, I know I will always be able to point out to visitors where I used to live and play amongst these houses and alleys.

How do you think a balance can be achieved between making space for the new and preserving heritage?

I think preserving heritage does not necessarily have to be a trade-off between the new and the old. Holding onto the past for the sake of preserving heritage may not be realistic. It is also about evolution, and perhaps looking at adaptive reuse, that is, how an old building can be used in today’s context. 

Take for example, The Warehouse Hotel at Havelock Road which was awarded the 2017 Architectural Heritage Awards for restoration and innovations. The character of the former warehouse has been retained while innovations were introduced to adapt that building to a new use, making it relevant for the travellers of today. 
 
We also need to continuously educate people on the importance of heritage, and make it interesting for our future generations to want to know, explore, and make their own interpretations of heritage.

What is the lasting legacy of Keong Saik that you want people to remember?

I hope people can remember Keong Saik as a place where our forebears had come to settle from China, worked hard to make a living, and left an imprint here. It was not merely streets that provided entertainment to pleasure seekers, but a place where a community of people, despite their difficulties, persevered in working towards the hope of a better future. 

Keong Saik can, and should, serve as an inspiration, or a reminder, of how far Singapore has come as a country made up mainly of immigrants who left their home countries to make a life for themselves.

17A Keong Saik Road recounts Charmaine Leung’s growing-up years on Keong Saik Road in the 1970s when it was a prominent red-light precinct in Chinatown in Singapore. An interweaving of past and present narratives, 17A Keong Saik Road tells of her mother’s journey as a young child put up for sale to becoming the madame of a brothel in Keong Saik. Unfolding her story as the daughter of a brothel operator and witnessing these changes to her family, Charmaine traces the transformation of the Keong Saik area from the 1930s to the present, and through writing, finds reconciliation.

A Global Discussion About the Future of Our Cities

RIBA’s first-ever International Week brings together leading names in architecture to open a global discourse on the roles architects can play in shaping future cities.

With an aim to bring together some of the most renowned architects representing continents around the globe, the Royal British Institute of Architect’s (RIBA’s) inaugural International Week is a high-profile event set to promote constructive discourse and debate on the future of cities.

Tackling the issues of design in an age when more and more people are living in cities than beyond them, leading professionals including Ma Yansong, Sir David Chipperfield, Odile Decq and Amanda Levete, among others, are scheduled to speak at a keystone conference. Titled ‘Change in the City: Opportunities for Architects in the New Agenda’, the conference will comprise a part of the International Week events.

It will address urban design challenges and opportunities as laid out in the ‘New Urban Agenda’ – a framework adopted at the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development that tackles how cities should be planned. The conference’s roster of international speakers will seek experts’ perspectives and examine key opportunities for architects highlighted in the New Urban Agenda.

Anchoring on three main themes – housing, cohesive society and cultural heritage – the panel of experts will seek to interpret what the New Urban Agenda defined by the UN summit (and attended by very few architects) means for architecture, including how it can be adapted by architects to stay relevant in the rapidly changing times.

RIBA President Jane Duncan has commented: “Architects need to play a vital role in shaping our urban future. RIBA’s International Week will connect with architects, no matter where or what size their practice is, to help them understand the potential impact and opportunities of global urbanisation. Under the umbrella of the New Urban Agenda, the week will provide explanation and inspiration, showing how the architecture profession can use its skills over the next two decades to make a valuable and long-lasting contribution to our future cities and society.”

The ‘Change in the City’ conference will form an integral part of a week of activities from 3 to 7 July at the RIBA and serve as a vehicle for discussion of current issues such as rapid urbanisation and migration, from architectural and sociological perspectives. The conference will be accompanied by a free exhibition, showcasing the participating architects’ work in relation to contemporary urban challenges.

House with an Atrium for IndesignLive

In a quiet Queenstown neighbourhood, a family house by RT+Q Architects defies the disadvantages of its site and poses creative solutions to bring light and air into its interior spaces.

It is not an easy accomplishment to design a house that retains a façade of privacy on its public-facing exterior, yet feels bright, inviting and filled with natural light behind its public face. Yet, it is a spatial juxtaposition that appears as a natural solution within the aptly named House with an Atrium by RT+Q Architects, which has designed the residence to make the maximum use of its site and to respond to the owners’ programmatic requirements.

From the very beginning, the clients – a couple with three children – expressed their desire for a design that would allow plenty of daylight into the interiors of their house. A challenging task for a site situated on a North-South facing plot of land and sandwiched between two other residential properties. The configuration of the rectangular plot also hindered the design team at RT+Q from designing big openings at the East- and West-facing façades. As a solution, the team chose to design a house with a large, double-volume atrium that pierced the first and second levels of the residence, bringing in light and air without attracting too much heat from the afternoon sun.

“One feature of a lot of our buildings is that their front façades do not give too much away but, internally, the houses still feel very open,” says Rene Tan, Director of RT+Q Architects, highlighting the recurring theme within a lot of firm’s projects. Within the House with an Atrium, too, the titular central void is instrumental in creating a sense of openness and space from the inside.

With the courtyard and its two-storey high green wall, the configuration of the communal spaces around the inviting atrium became a logical choice. On the first floor, the design team positioned the gallery and the dining area directly across from each other, providing expansive, unobstructed views of activities taking place at the opposite, East and West ends of the house, while placing a spacious living room at the front of the house facing out to the vibrant green wall. On the second floor, the team designed a master suite overlooking the atrium’s courtyard and the spaces below, giving the clients a broad overview of the entire house from the comfort of their room. Other bedrooms were given more privacy by being set back from the atrium via elongated circulation spaces around the internal courtyard.

In a similar, strategic move, the RT+Q team incorporated open light courts and glass floors above selected areas of the basement to bring natural light below ground and make the lobby, tuition and entertainment areas, as well as various service spaces, a welcoming, well-lit continuation of the family spaces above. The choice of materials, like light grey concrete and marble throughout the basement and upper floors, further enabled the team to create a sense of space and openness within the 7,700 square foot home.

The team took special delight in designing the first-storey staircase, which was crafted in the same spirit of bringing lightness and various transparencies into the dwelling. “The owners were adventurous enough to go with a different kind of staircase,” says project lead Allan Tongol. “As a result, we went with perforated steel as a chosen material for the treads and the rises, making the whole structure, just like the house itself, look transparent and light.”

Tradition and Inclusivity in Balance for IndesignLive

For the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre, DP Architects merge traditional Chinese influences with a forward-thinking design vision to create a venue that fosters socio-cultural interactions.

As a new cultural landmark complementing the neighbouring Singapore Conference Hall in the central business district, the Singapore Chinese Cultural Centre (SCCC) is a thoughtful amalgamation of functional and educational spaces with an expansive programme driven by innovation and anchored in culture and arts.

Designed by DP Architects with landscape consultant DP Green, the new building is the answer to a design brief that called for a forward-looking, and spatially and socially inclusive building that would create a welcoming destination for diverse groups of visitors.

The new venue walks a fine line between fitting in with its surrounding context and standing out. The SCCC is a one-stop destination for performances, exhibitions and cultural activities. To bring coherence to the composition of programmes held within, DP Architects gave the building a clean and contemporary look that also connects to the neighbourhood around it.

DP took inspiration from traditional Chinese three-tiered architectural compositions, and organised the SCCC in a functional stack for clarity of programmes, circulation and planning. Articulation of the architectural language reveals itself in three distinctly defined tiers: an elevated base that offers public spaces below, a solid body that contains all the main functions, and a glass crown for performances and cultural activities.

The DP team also drew inspiration from traditional Chinese landscape art to conceptualise the SCCC building and connect it to the setting around it. “The landscape is usually expressed with rough strokes (皴 in Chinese) to outline the coarse nature, while the building is depicted with more refined representations,” recalls Wang Ying, Associate Director, DP Architects. Likewise, in the SCCC, the juxtapositions exist between the box form and the multi-faceted podium, between the transparent top and the opaque bottom, and between the smooth crown and textured base. The juxtapositions create a balanced dialogue, echoing the artistic sensibilities found in Chinese landscape paintings.

As a result, the subtle implementation of Chinese architectural and artistic influences and the clean, contemporary expression of these ideas in the final design allows the SCCC to serve as a beacon of cultural identity and heritage, while remaining harmonious and inclusive of broader communities. According to Ying, “The mix of contemporary ideas in the facade treatment and traditional architectural convention in the planning embodies the spirit of respect. The architecture remains true to Chinese culture and heritage while becoming a conduit for interactions from various socio-cultural elements.”

Contextual Revival, Resort-Style for IndesignLive

The new Movenpick Resort & Spa in Bali merges aspects of traditional Balinese culture, local history and contemporary Indonesian craftsmanship in a unique array of spaces and installations.

The recent opening of Bali’s new lifestyle destination, the Samasta Village shopping and cultural complex – with Movenpick Resort and Spa at the centre of the development – has brought a new wave of tourist activity to laid-back Jimbaran. The location has a long history as a fishing village and the resort, while expansive, exhibits a sensitive response to its local history and surrounding context. Indonesian firm Hadiprana have celebrated the humble beginnings of the village within the resort’s spaces and through specially commissioned artworks.

Open, airy and distinctly contemporary in its overall aesthetic, Movenpick acknowledges its Jimbaran location in subtle but striking ways. Inspired by the lifestyle of the local fisherfolk, from the equipment used on a daily basis within the trade to the crafts that are a part of their daily lives, Hadiprana’s design takes cues from the vernacular. And in so doing, it unveils an updated reinterpretation of local references.

Allowing for a certain playfulness in scale and application, these design elements – such as the form of a wave in the carvings on lobby partitions and wall panels – appear through the public and private areas of the resort. These details tie the spaces together.

The subtle and overt references to nature weave a consistent design thread. Carefully curated materials and visual porosities create continuous connections with the landscape beyond the walls. The resort fully embraces the setting around it – from the dramatic promenade piercing through the lobby and framing the view out to the landscape and trellised structure beyond, to the ground-level restaurant Anarasa with floor-to-ceiling windows and a sheltered outdoor dining area, to slivers of greenery that make their way into the openings and voids that puncture the building’s mass at strategic locations.

Artworks and installations were commissioned out and produced in-house, and are positioned throughout the resort to reinforce the connection to nature and the local context of Jimbaran. A mix of custom installations from Hadiprana Artwork, furniture from product designer Alvin Tjitrowirjo, and handpicked paintings and statues by local painters and sculptors form an impressive collection that honours Balinese culture and celebrates contemporary Indonesian art as a whole.

According to the team at Hadiprana, “The selection and production of art installations was a well-thought process considering the theme, colours and the whole interior concept. Therefore, the artworks were selected not just for decoration but to give ‘soul’ to the whole resort area.”

In Pursuit of Happiness (Bhutan Happiness Centre) for XTRA Gazette

A dedicated happiness centre in Bhutan teaches valuable lessons in achieving contentment within facilities that inspire with their ecologically and culturally sensitive design approach.

http://www.xtra.com.sg/in-pursuit-of-happiness/

Happiness comes in many different forms and variations. The pursuit of it is as old as time, driving individual motivations, aspirations, hopes and dreams. At national and international levels, the notion of happiness can be as abstract as it can be elusive – a philosophy of a sort that can, nevertheless, unify and connect individual ideas in a larger whole, becoming an integral part of a national ethos.

A lofty concept as such, the idea of pursuing happiness at a national level has been put into practice in the recent years in Bhutan, the first country in the world to apply the Gross National Happiness (GNH) rate instead of the GDP to measure the wellbeing of the country. With the GNH rate first implemented in 2008, Bhutan’s government executed measures to promote an alternate way of evaluating happiness rooted in non-economic aspects of wellbeing.

It is with this notion in mind that the Bhutan Happiness Centre came about as a learning and sharing platform to encapsulate the ideas and experiences of happiness through meditation and freedom. Set against a peaceful backdrop of a barely disturbed pine forest, the centre beacons with a promise of a noble vision that happy, balanced life should achievable for everyone.

With a specific aim to tackle two out of four pillars that comprise the GNH – the preservation of culture and identity and environmental conservation – the Bhutan Happiness Centre is a balance of natural and human-made elements that come together as a cohesive whole. Straight lines and curves of buildings that merge as part of the overall architectural language evoke equilibrium and peace within a setting of a sustainable universe.

Spaciously spread out on a sloping terrain next to the Bumthang river, the Centre’s architecture conveys a sense of belonging in its unpretentious language of vernacularism, deliberately devoid of sweeping architectural gestures or iconic monumentality. Designed by 1+1>2 Architects, the centre’s cluster of buildings that include a meditation hall for 250 people and a 100-seat convention house is driven by the ideas of harmonious coexistence of people and nature.

The two-storey meditation hall embodies the idea of the earth and heaven coming together with the first storey’s round shape fitting neatly under the second storey’s rectangular parameters. Similarly, the elliptical form of the convention house takes inspiration from the Buddha tree, incorporating vernacular decoration details within a contemporary context.

Traditional, locally available materials like wood, stone and soil compose structural elements that are, at once, humble and purposeful. Coming together as parts of a natural system, the harmonies between the materials connect humans with the nature around them and expose the Centre as a part of, rather than an intrusion of, a delicate eco-system.

Establishing a virtuous vision of attainable happiness for all, the Bhutan Happiness Centre sets precedents of achieving gross national happiness in action. With visitors from all over the world coming to the Centre with a purpose of exploring the fairly abstract concept of happiness on their own terms, Bhutan’s vision for societal wellbeing remains alive and well, inspiring a much-needed global outlook that happiness and economic success do not need to be mutually exclusive.

A House of Wellness

ONG&ONG’s winning competition entry for the Singapore Red Cross House celebrates the organisation’s rich history and lifelong legacy of altruism and philanthropy. Olha Romaniuk writes.

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/projects/a-house-of-wellness

Attempting to reinterpret history from a contemporary perspective is never an easy feat. However, for the design competition that sought to redevelop the Singapore Red Cross House earlier this year, the design team at ONG&ONGdid just that with a winning design proposal that addressed the main historical and programmatic considerations of the brief, updating the Red Cross House with a fresh, new look and addressing its historical legacy along the way.

For the SRC – an organisation with a seventy-year heritage and history rooted in local and international humanitarian efforts – the design team at ONG&ONG faced a twofold requirement that demanded a preservation of the original Red Cross House structure and an introduction of a new building within the existing site. The final design, more than just blending the old and the new, had to reflect the spirit of the organisation and meet and anticipate the current and future needs of the Singapore Red Cross.

According to the ONG&ONG SRC redevelopment design team, “The original SRC House, together with its classically iconic façade, needed to be maintained and incorporated into the new grounds. SRC also required a new building in order to expand its repertoire of services and capabilities, where a revamped site would provide state-of-the-art facilities in a modernised setting, catering for the present needs and requirements of the SRC, while keeping an eye on possible future expansion.”

As part of the design proposal, ONG&ONG’s design team introduced a new building that took full advantage of its site, while referencing SRC’s nostalgic and rich past, and its existing building’s surrounding context. Thus, the team proposed to restore the original Red Cross House building to its initial 2-storey form and convert it into a space for the Red Cross Academy and a thrift store, adding a new 10-storey office tower and connecting the existing and new structures via a landscaped plaza and a detached office lift core.

The new and the old buildings convey the history and legacy of the Singapore Red Cross in a variety of ways. The tower is unmistakably indicative of its organisation from the very first glance – the north and south façades feature the Red Cross’s colour scheme in a composition of concrete geometric fins, folded like paper planes and forming the organisation’s distinctive logo. Meanwhile, the original structure reminds of its days of glory, with a restored shape and proportion that recalls the building as it used to be decades ago.

The ONG&ONG team bridges the original building and the new tower with an elevated event plaza, creating a physical transition via a detached office lift core that connects with the event space. “Beyond bridging the internal spaces of both the original and new SRC structures, the plaza not only provides the means and space for any number of SRC initiatives and engagements, but also allows the institute to easily and efficiently accommodate an increased number of people and volunteers,” says the design team.

In fact, it is the consideration for the volunteers and the people behind the Singapore Red Cross’ mission of selflessness and altruism that drives much of the design of the SRC House project. ONG&ONG’s overall design strategy emphasises its WELL Building Standard and systems, reaching for an optimisation of a built environment that would sustain the health and livelihood of the buildings’ users through well-ventilated, well-lit spaces that promote overall wellbeing.

“Taking into account that many of the new SRC House’s inhabitants and end-users would be there in the spirit of volunteerism, health and wellbeing were definite points of emphasis for us when approaching the SRC redevelopment project,” concludes the design team. “These design standards represent a holistically modern approach to health – with all amenities and facilities, even lighting and air quality, all geared towards nurturing and sustaining the buildings’ end-users.”

A Pavilion That Invites Pause for IndesignLive

http://www.indesignlive.sg/articles/projects/a-pavilion-that-invites-pause

Offering a welcoming breather in the heart of Singapore’s busy business district, DP Architects’ Archifest Pavilion invites the public to connect with each other and with the surrounding environment through design.

It has been a busy few weeks leading up to the highly anticipated opening of Singapore’s annual Archifest, organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects with the purpose to celebrating the architecture and the built environment of the city. With this year marking the event’s 10th anniversary, the festival saw the return of the Archifest Pavilion – a symbolic structure at the epicentre of Archifest’s activities – designed by DP Architects in the spirit of this year’s theme of Exhale that questions the rapid speed of life in dense cities.

“SIA’s theme challenged us to influence the city’s pace of life with architecture,” says Ang Guo Zi, Associate Director at DP Architects. “Can architecture alone really induce a city to ‘rediscover its own rhythm’? Located in the heart of the Central Business District, we found the context of that question excitingly provocative.”

For those working or living in the Central Business District, it has been impossible to miss the rising scaffolding and strips of colourful netting swiftly taking shape in the usually open green lawn space anchoring Raffles Place and its high-rise surroundings. Serving as a statement and as a functional space, the Pavilion answered to this year’s Exhale theme most profoundly, perhaps, by simply having been situated where it has been – a high-density, high-activity location filled with working professionals rushing to and from their daily meetings in a charged, hectic and, often, breathless environment.

The design team that included DP Architects, DP Engineers, DP Green, Illuminate lighting design consultancy, contractors and engineers Shanghai Chong Kee Construction Pte Ltd and Keon Consult Pte Ltd aimed to achieve a purposefully colourful and ephemeral look for the Pavilion’s structure. Seeking to make an immediate impact with energetic bands of colour, the Pavilion’s design sought to create an intimate and unique relationship with each of its incidental viewers, with hues of colours inviting visitors to pause, look up and appreciate their surroundings. Seeking to revitalise and enliven the busy urban landscape with its presence, the Pavilion aimed to elicit its viewers’ basic responses to vibrant colours and to influence the psychological and physiological responses to gradations of light for a positive reaction.

Apart from creating a colourful, albeit temporary, addition to the Raffles Place site, the DP Architects design team also approached the project with a sustainable point of view. The team developed the Pavilion’s skeletal scaffolding structure from the contractor’s existing stock with the goal to reuse the steel on future construction sites after the structure’s disassembly. Similarly, the team imagined the Pavilion’s polychromatic fins of colour to be reusable as well, with the multiple layers of colour to be composed of safety netting material to create density in colour and form and to be reused at upcoming construction sites after Archifest’s conclusion. Through the usage of the chosen materials, the design team also hoped to “invert the usual connotations of construction sites such as a sense of dislocation and loss” and to look at them instead as marks of progress and achievement.

“With the Archifest Pavilion, we wanted people to find a moment of wonder and respite in the heart of our bustling city,” says Ang. “There is no particular take-home message – each individual should frame his or her own story, own experience and memory of this transient place.”

Dubai’s Latest Icon Soars to New Heights

Poised to become the focal point of a new development, the latest iconic structure on Dubai’s skyline is set to convert the Dubai Creek Harbour area into one of the newest premiere residential and leisure destinations. Dubbed ‘The Tower’, the super tall megastructure is a collaboration between Santiago Calatrava and engineer/architect-of-record Aurecon, combining a unique soaring form with innovative technical and structural features that aim to create a landmark indicative of Dubai’s futuristic vision.

To those who are familiar with Calatrava’s previous iconic structures, the striking proposal for The Tower, which was selected from a total of six schemes by global architecture firms, immediately brings to mind the signature ribbed character of the star architect’s earlier projects. Nevertheless, The Tower’s form, with its network of steel cable stays radiating from the structure’s central reinforced concrete core, promises to become more than just a single-stroke statement, taking inspiration from the local context and mixing traditional and contemporary references for a context-appropriate response.

Beyond the aesthetics of The Tower, the megastructure promises to attest to the combined structural, technical and environmental prowess of Calatrava and Aurecon. The two teams will collaborate with each other on a number of design and technical features, working closely during the design process to arrive at optimal solutions for the structure. With a strong focus on sustainability and energy efficiency, The Tower will boast an advanced cooling system to respond to and mitigate Dubai’s hot weather, with integrated vegetation, shading system and wing doors that also contribute to the building’s energy efficiency. Additionally, the water collected from the cooling system will be utilised to clean The Tower’s façade.

As an upcoming iconic destination rooted in and inspired by its context, The Tower aims to hit all the right notes, combining a striking form with ambitious structural and environmental considerations. When completed in four years, the megastructure, with its sheer height, will transform Dubai Creek Harbour and Dubai at large. The architects and engineers involved in the project have expressed hope that The Tower will also set precedents for its design merit.

In the words of Mohamed Alabbar, Chairman of Emaar Properties that commissioned the project, “The design is a perfect fit for our requirements and integrates not just design excellence, but also strong environmental and smart-tech considerations. With The Tower, we are delivering a compelling destination that will add long-term economic value to Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.”