Foster + Partners have won an international competition to design a highly sustainable mixed use scheme for Beach Road in Singapore. Occupying an entire city block between the Marina Center and the Civic District, the scheme will create a 150,000 square meter eco-quarter in downtown Singapore that continues the Singaporean ideal of the city in a garden with its lush planting and sky gardens. A generous canopy protects the public realm at ground level, buffering the spaces beneath from the extremes of the tropical climate. Above the canopy rises a vertical city of clustered towers.
The scheme incorporates commercial, residential, retail and two high end hotels, as well as a direct green link to an MRT station. Offering a light and comfortable environment, Beach Road will provide an exemplar sustainable quarter for Singapore. The design has the potential to achieve the Green Mark Platinum Rating.
The canopy is articulated by ribbon-forms that flex above the primary circulation routes and public spaces and dip near the edges - reflecting the changes of use beneath it. The ribbons rise up the exposed east and west elevations of the towers where they form a series of vertical louvres. These filter the sun and provide a framework for the planting which will transform the towers into a series of vertically linked green spaces. The buildings forms and slanted facades are oriented to catch the prevailing winds and direct air flow down to cool the ground level spaces.
To lock the project into its context four existing structures are conserved and opened to the city as public buildings. The primary axis of the scheme is a new street which is crossed at key points to encourage circulation through shops and cafés. The scheme will provide a new civic destination for Singapore.
