48 NORTH CANAL ROAD BY WOHA

The project brief called for a new boutique office and the reconstruction of a pair of heritage-listed shophouses.

WOHA was commissioned only after their demolition to reconstruct the shopfront (up to 7.5m depth) in accordance with Singapore's Urban Redevelopment Authority's conservation and planning guidelines, and to design an entirely new, contemporary rear wing.

As the original floor levels with their low ceiling heights were retained, the front end of the shophouses was deemed more suitable for meeting rooms, while the service end accommodated a mechanised carpark.

The idea was to strategically lift up the open plan offices within the upper 4 floors where the floor plate size is maximised, higher headroom is gained, better views are enjoyed and more natural daylight is accessed from the sides.

Every flat roof area is also transformed into roof gardens with the attic featuring the office's recreational lounge from which unblocked panoramic views of Hong Lim Park and PARKROYAL on Pickering Hotel can be enjoyed.

Unlike a typical internalised courtyard, the main design strategy was to invert the shophouse typology by carving out valuable floor area to create an externalised, urban, public pocket park at the very heart of the office instead.

A café, break-out areas and meeting rooms are organised around this park, enjoying the greenery and light that it brings to the deep plan. This public gesture further serves to reduce the intermediate scale of the 9-storey building to a more intimate, human scale at the pocket park below.

The formal architectural language of fractal, triangulated geometry originated from the need to comply with authority requirements of having splayed corners as the building is bounded by three roads.

This inspired a chiselled expression that was carried through in both plan and elevation, taking the form of internal angled walls and external slanted planes, revealing a concave curtain wall like that of crystal embedded in the hollow lower strata of its atrium park space.

Shading was also built into the formal language by means of an integrated sun screen within the curtain wall system and a series of perforated aluminium panels.

Location: 48 North Canal Road , Singapore

Architects: WOHA

Project Team: Wong Mun Summ, Richard Hassell, Ang Chow Hwee, Daniel Fung, Dennis P. Formalejo, Christina Ong, Eric Barthole

Project Manager: Hong How Projects Pte Ltd

Civil and Structural Engineering: CP Lim & Partners

Mechanical and Electrical Engineering: Squire Mech Pte Ltd

Quantity Surveyors: Langdon & Seah Singapore Pte Ltd

Landscape Consultant: Coen International Pte Ltd

Main Contractor: Takenaka Corporation

Site Area: 326 sqm

Area: 1,370 sqm

Year: 2012

Client: Maybank Kim Eng Properties Pte Ltd

Photographs: Patrick Bingham-Hall

PARKROYAL ON PICKERING BY WOHA

WOHA Architects have long been advocates of the ultimate ‘green city’ – one that would be comprised of more vegetation than if it were left as wilderness – and the PARKROYAL on Pickering was designed as a hotel-as-garden that would double the green-growing potential of its site.

Adorned by frangipani and palm trees and draped with tropical plants, curvaceous sky-gardens are cantilevered at every fourth level between the blocks of guest rooms. Greenery flourishes throughout the entire complex, and the trees and gardens of the hotel appears to merge with those of the adjoining park as one continuous sweep of urban parkland.

 

The PARKROYAL on Pickering occupies a long and narrow site on the western edge of the central business district, between Hong Lim Park and the HDB apartment blocks of Chinatown, and overlooks the historic shophouse district between the park and the Singapore River.

The development could thus respond to many varied environments, it could provide public connections between those zones, and as the building would be extremely visible, the architects could make a grand (and green) urban gesture.

 

A twelve-storey tower above a five-storey podium is placed on an E plan, so that all guest rooms look north to the park and/or into the sky gardens, whilst the services and the external connecting corridors were placed on the southern elevation.

As the hotel is ‘self-shaded’ – by the projecting sky gardens and the adjacency of the three room-blocks – and shielded from early morning and afternoon sun by adjoining buildings, the rooms could be fully glazed (by low-emissivity glass) without external screening devices.

 

The podium represents a monumental embellishment to the Singapore streetscape, and has thus immediately achieved something that no other recent building has even attempted in the city.

Referred to by WOHA as ‘topographical architecture’, stratified layers of pre-cast concrete weave through a modular grid of cylindrical columns without interruption, and without acknowledgment of the boundaries between exterior and interior.

Cascades flow down from swimming pools and garden terraces on the podium roof, over the ‘eroded rock-forms’ of the striated mass, and into crevices and ledges from which trees and vines can thrive.

 

The PARKROYAL on Pickering is a very public and very Singaporean hotel. The architecture responds specifically to the intricacies of the city – the height of the ubiquitous tree canopies, the size and orientation of the adjoining tower blocks, and the proportions of the historic streetscapes – and retains a human scale at all times, in stark contrast to the generic abstraction of the surrounding office buildings.

 

 

 

 
 
Location: Singapore
Architect: WOHA 
Project Team: Wong Mun Summ, Richard Hassell, Donovan Soon, Sim Choon Heok, Toh Hua Jack, Bernard Lee, Amber Dar Wagh, Mappaudang Ridwan Saleh, Evelyn Ng, John Paul Gonzalez, Josephine Isip, Goh Kai Shien, Luu Dieu Khanh, Tan Szue Hann, Alen Low, Pham Sing Yeong, Vanessa Ong, Novita Johana, Andre Kumar Alexander 
Landscape Consultant: Tierra Design 
Civil and Structural Engineering: TEP Consultants 
Mechanical and Electrical Engineering: BECA Carter Hollings - Ferner 
Quantity Surveyors: Rider Levett Bucknall 
Lighting Consultant: Lighting Planners Associates 
Façade Consultant: Meinhardt Facade Technology 
Greenmark Consultant: LJ Energy 
Acoustic Consultant: CCW Associates 
Signage Consultant: Design Objectives 
Management Company: Pan Pacific Hotels Group 
Main Contractor: Tiong Seng Contractors 
Area: 29,811 sqm 
Cost: 280000000 USD 
Year: 2013 
Client: UOL Group Limited 

Photographs: Patrick Bingham-Hall, Erwin Soo

SCHOOL OF THE ARTS BY WOHA

This project is a specialist high school for the visual and performing arts. The school is located in the heart of Singapore’s Civic district, at the gateway to the Arts and Entertainment district.

 

The school combines a high-density, inner-city school with a professional performing arts venue. The design strategy for this inner city school creates two visually connected horizontal strata, a space for public communication below, and a space for safe, controlled interaction above.

This strategy solves the twin objectives of porosity and communication with the public and wider arts community on the one hand, and a secure and safe learning environment on the other. The two parts were called the Backdrop and the Blank Canvas.

The Backdrop is the podium that contains a concert hall, drama theatre, black box theatre and several small informal performing spaces. Against this backdrop, the school communicates with the public realm.

The high volume, naturally-ventilated informal spaces in between the performance spaces are designed around an urban short-cut, thereby allowing the public to see the activities of the school.

A civic amphitheatre has been created under conserved trees, and is very popular. Architecturally, the Backdrop is designed as a faceted sculptural space, which frames the surrounding city views in new and interesting ways, The Blank Canvas is the secured school area, and is a simple, flexible space.

The metaphor suggests the open possibilities and focus on the educational content rather than the architectural frame. Three long rectangular blocks have a secured point of access yet are visually connected from all the circulation spaces, to the public areas below.

This environment is simple, practical, bright, airy and is designed for maximum flexibility and sustainability. Classrooms, studios and circulation are all naturally ventilated, with dynamic visual and physical links between blocks.

The green façades are environmental filters, cutting out glare and dust, keeping the rooms cool, and in combination with the acoustic ceilings, absorb traffic noise. The breezeways in-between the blocks are designed for maximum comfort and interaction, providing spaces for different sized groups to interact and relax.

The wind-directing design has proved to be successful and extremely comfortable, with constant cooling breezes even in Singapore’s low wind environment. The rooftop is designed as a large recreation park in the sky.

 

 

 

 

Location: Zubir Said Drive, Singapore 

Architect: WOHA 

Project Team: Wong Mun Summ, Richard Hassell, Sim Choon Heok, Chan Ee Mun, Esther Soh, Ian Donlan, Teh Tien Hwa, Alina Yeo, Burapa Prommul, Kwong Lay Lay, Nixon Jose Sicat, Alen Low, Christina Ong, Evi Syariffudin, Germain Goh, Merlinda Song, Muhammad Halim Bin Wahab, Ong Ker Shing, Pamela Choo, Sabrina Foong 

Mechanical, Electrical Engineers: Lincolne Scott Ng Pte Ltd 

Structural Engineers: WorleyParsons Pte Ltd 

Landscape Architect: Cicada Private Limited 

Acoustics: Arup Acoustics/Theatreplan LLP 

Architectural Lighting: Lighting Planners Associates 

Main Contractor: Tiong Aik Construction Pte Ltd 

Area: 52,945.54 m2 

Cost: S$121 million 

Year: 2010 

Client: Ministry of Information, Communication and the Arts 

Photographs: Patrick Bingham-Hall