The Architecture in Singapore, Part 4: Hospitality Architecture

 Prepared by Pang Jian Sheng

Oasia Hotel Downtown / WOHA

Oasia Hotel Downtown, nestled in Singapore’s bustling Central Business District (CBD), stands as a verdant beacon amidst the dense urban landscape. This innovative "living tower" by WOHA Architects offers a refreshing departure from conventional skyscraper designs, embracing the tropical climate with its lush greenery and open-air spaces. The hotel is not just a place to stay but a testament to sustainable urban living, harmonizing nature with high-density development.

Lush greenery on the red metal mesh facade.

The void open space at the middle tower creates a peaceful scenery for the hotel lobby.

Green parameter along the sky garden.

Oasia Hotel Downtown exemplifies efficient land use intensification, crucial in a dense urban environment like Singapore’s CBD. Unlike traditional skyscrapers that are sealed and temperature-controlled, this hotel embraces the tropical climate by incorporating multiple sky gardens at various levels. These sky gardens serve as elevated “ground” levels, offering ample public spaces for recreation and social interaction. Each garden is designed as an urban verandah, sheltered by the preceding level and open-sided to ensure formal and visual transparency. This design not only creates dynamic internal spaces with captivating views but also allows natural breezes to pass through the building, enhancing cross-ventilation and providing a comfortable, airy environment for guests.

A standout feature of Oasia Hotel Downtown is its extensive use of greenery as an architectural element. The building achieves an impressive Green Plot Ratio of 1,100%, effectively reintroducing biodiversity into the urban core. The tower’s red aluminium mesh cladding, interspersed with 21 species of creepers and colourful flowers, creates a living facade that evolves with the seasons. This vertical garden attracts birds and insects, turning the hotel into a haven for urban wildlife. The thoughtful placement of plants ensures that each species thrives in its optimal light, shade, and wind conditions, forming a vibrant mosaic of greenery. This extensive landscaping not only enhances the building’s aesthetic appeal but also contributes to the ecological health of the city.

The rooftop swimming pool is surrounded by the structure for the green facade

The sky bar is made with brick walls that simulate the tropical oasis.

Oasia Hotel Downtown’s design prioritizes sustainability and the well-being of its occupants. The open-air sky gardens reduce the need for air conditioning, minimizing the building’s energy consumption. These green spaces provide guests with natural light and fresh air, creating a pleasant, healthy environment. The tower’s top is crowned with a tropical bower, a soft and living contrast to the typical flat roofs of urban skyscrapers. This green roof further promotes biodiversity and serves as a tranquil retreat amidst the urban hustle. The integration of greenery throughout the building not only mitigates the heat island effect but also offers a unique, biophilic experience for guests, blending urban living with nature.

Oasia Hotel Downtown is a striking example of how urban architecture can harmonize with nature, offering a sustainable and aesthetically pleasing solution to high-density living. Its innovative design features, from the verdant sky gardens to the living facade, demonstrate a forward-thinking approach to urban development. As a visitor, I was captivated by the hotel’s ability to create a serene, natural environment in the heart of a bustling city. This harmonious blend of nature and architecture is why I believe Oasia Hotel Downtown is a remarkable piece of urban design, setting a new standard for sustainable living in the tropics.

PARKROYAL on Pickering / WOHA

PARKROYAL on Pickering, located in the heart of Singapore's Central Business District (CBD), stands as a striking example of innovative urban architecture by WOHA Architects. This "hotel-as-garden" doubles the green-growing potential of its site, merging seamlessly with the adjoining park to create an extensive urban oasis. The building’s design not only challenges the conventional aesthetic of Singapore’s skyline but also introduces a new paradigm of sustainable and community-focused architecture.

One of the most remarkable features of PARKROYAL on Pickering is its extensive integration of greenery, which transforms the building into a living garden. Massive, curvaceous sky gardens draped with tropical plants are cantilevered at every fourth level, creating a lush, green environment that flourishes throughout the entire complex. These gardens are home to a variety of plants, including frangipani and palm trees, blending seamlessly with the adjacent park to form a continuous sweep of urban parkland. The greenery not only enhances the aesthetic appeal but also contributes to the building’s sustainability by providing natural cooling and improving air quality. This innovative use of greenery exemplifies WOHA’s vision of a ‘green city’ where buildings are designed to be more vegetated than the surrounding wilderness.

The cabana is elevated from the green on the facility floor.

The cityscape view from the swimming pool deck.

The hotel floor with a garden terrace right above the facility floor.

The architectural design of PARKROYAL on Pickering is both functional and visually striking. The building occupies a long and narrow site, strategically positioned between Hong Lim Park and the HDB apartment blocks of Chinatown. This location allows the hotel to respond to multiple environments and provide public connections between different zones of the city. The twelve-story tower forms an E-plan, ensuring that all guest rooms have views of the park or the sky gardens. The services and external corridors are placed on the southern elevation, while the northern side remains open to the elements. This design allows the hotel to be self-shaded, reducing the need for external screening devices and enhancing energy efficiency. The open-to-the-elements pool deck on the five-story podium and the cascading terraces above create a dramatic architectural statement that integrates seamlessly with the urban landscape.

WOHA’s use of topographical architecture at PARKROYAL on Pickering is a standout feature that distinguishes the building from other recent developments in Singapore. The undulating layers of pre-cast concrete wrap around the podium, creating a monumental and dynamic facade that evokes natural rock formations. These stratified layers are not just aesthetic elements but also functional, supporting the extensive greenery that cascades down from the pool decks and garden terraces. The design pays homage to traditional Asian architecture through elaborately composed timber mouldings and decorative forms that draw inspiration from the mosques of the Moors and the Persians. The porte-cochere, a grand entryway that serves as a ceremonial gateway between different city precincts, exemplifies WOHA’s commitment to creating public architecture that fosters community and connectivity.

The water feature beside the exterior pathway cools down the surrounding area.

Water features cool down the internal area to reduce the building's energy cost.

PARKROYAL on Pickering by WOHA Architects is a remarkable example of how urban architecture can harmoniously blend with nature while addressing the needs of a bustling city. The hotel’s innovative design features, from its lush sky gardens to its topographical architecture, make it a standout landmark in Singapore’s CBD. As a visitor, I was captivated by the building’s ability to create a serene, green oasis amidst the urban jungle. This integration of nature and architecture not only enhances the aesthetic and environmental quality of the city but also sets a new standard for sustainable urban living. The PARKROYAL on Pickering is a testament to WOHA’s vision of a green city and a prime example of how architecture can contribute to the well-being of both its occupants and the broader community.

Reflection

Malaysia architecture can draw significant inspiration from the innovative designs of Oasia Hotel Downtown and PARKROYAL on Pickering by WOHA to enhance urban residential developments. These projects showcase how integrating extensive greenery and open-air spaces within high-density environments can promote sustainable living and enhance urban biodiversity. By incorporating elements such as sky gardens, vertical facades with diverse plant species, and natural ventilation systems, Malaysian architects can create healthier, more comfortable living spaces that reduce reliance on artificial climate control.

The use of greenery not only improves air quality and mitigates the heat island effect but also provides residents with tranquil, natural retreats amidst the city bustle. Emulating the thoughtful placement of plants to ensure optimal growth conditions can foster vibrant urban ecosystems, attract wildlife and enhance ecological health. Furthermore, the design principles that prioritize public spaces for social interaction, along with sustainable features that reduce energy consumption, can contribute to creating resilient, community-oriented residential areas.

By adopting these approaches, Malaysia can develop urban residential projects that harmonize with nature, offer aesthetic appeal, and promote the well-being of its inhabitants, setting new standards for sustainable and biophilic urban living.