It's like a jungle sometimes

Designed by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) 

From the architects: 

Singapore's pioneering vertical urbanism continues with the completion of CapitaSpring – a 280m-tall high-rise with a diverse neighbourhood of restaurants, office space, a serviced residence and sky gardens from the ground all the way up to the 51st floor.

Currently among the city's tallest towers, CapitaSpring is designed by BIG and Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA), who collaborated on its architecture, public space, and digital user experience (respectively).

The development is located at the heart of Singapore's financial district on the site of a former public car park and a hawker centre.  

At multiple elevations, the vertical elements comprising the building’s exterior are pulled apart to allow glimpses into the green oases blooming from the base, core, and rooftop sky garden. 

The tower reinforces Singapore’s reputation as a garden city, housing over 80,000 plants, with a Green Plot Ratio of more than 1:1.4 – translating to a total landscaped area of more than 8,300 m²), equivalent to 140% of its site area.

Brian Yang, partner in charge, Bjarke Ingels Group: “As someone with Singaporean heritage, I have been honoured and humbled by the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing evolution of architecture in Singapore as a distinct blending between the contemporary and the tropical. 

"In our design, this manifests as a seamless transition between the garden and the city, articulated in the facades and a series of lush spiralling gardens connecting between various programs and filled with amenities representing a spectrum of use." 

At street level, CapitaSpring restores a portion of the historically significant Market Street to the public realm by pedestrianising the stretch and creating an expanded landscaped area which creates new green breathing space in the high-density CBD for the neighbouring tenants and passersby.

Meandering garden paths create natural entryways into the City Room, an 18m-high generous open space at the foot of the tower that creates shelter from the tropical sunlight and showers and welcomes tenants into separate lobbies for the offices and residences, as well as shoppers and diners into the food centre within the tower’s podium. 

The iconic Market Street Hawker Centre is recreated at the building’s second and third floors with 56 food stalls – solidifying the location as the beating heart of the city’s culinary experience, and the role it plays in maintaining local culture and community.

Bjarke Ingels, founding partner, BIG: “Our design seeks to continue Singapore's pioneering vertical urbanism with the 280m tall diverse neighbourhood of places to work, live and play inside as well as outside. 

"Due to the unique character of Singapore’s urbanism – both extremely dense and green – we decided to make the design a vertical exploration of tropical urbanism. 

"At grade, the street is closed to form a new linear park and public plaza – a vertical park in the middle of the tower forms a spiralling promenade ascending among tropical tree trunks and canopies. 

"On top, an urban forest feeds all the restaurants and cafes in the building and allows visitors to enjoy the lushness of the summit – CapitaSpring is like a vision of a future in which city and countryside, culture and nature can coexist, and urban landscapes can expand unrestricted into the vertical dimension.”

The first eight floors of the tower are dedicated to the serviced residences, including a wide range of facilities such as a swimming pool, jacuzzi, jogging track, gymnasium, social kitchen, residents’ lounge, and barbecue pits,

The top 29 floors offer premium office spaces with panoramic views of the Singapore River and Marina Bay.

Carlo Ratti, founding partner, CRA and director, MIT Senseable City Lab: "When we first got invited to join the architectural competition, we saw a great opportunity to team up and join forces with BIG to achieve a uniquely bold result together. \

"It has been enriching to combine our approach with design and innovation with BIG's skill in architectural scale. 

"As CapitaSpring is open to the public today, I am proud of how we enhanced the public spaces across the building, creating the best experience for all users, leveraging both technology and unprecedented integration with natural elements."

At the core of the building between the hardscapes of the offices and residences are four connected levels of organic softscape dubbed the “Green Oasis” – a 35m open-air garden for work, casual strolls, relaxation, exercise, and events. The Green Oasis seamlessly weaves nature vertically into the architecture and satisfies the spatial limitations of the locale while granting tenants and residents abundant access to green spaces – animating the elegant smoothness of modern architecture with the ubiquitous tropical nature of the region.

The overall vertical softscape of the Green Oasis mimics the plant hierarchy of tropical rainforests; the hierarchical leaf growth of the plants is in direct proportional relationship to light availability within the vegetation layers. Shade-tolerant plants with large leaves are found on the “rainforest floor,” requiring the least amount of direct light. Moving towards the canopy layer – the “roof” of the rainforest – trees are defined by their smaller leaf structure.

CapitaSpring’ s rooftop garden, with views of the city, is home to Singapore’s tallest urban farm, operated by 1-Group. 

Currently, over 150 species of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, are grown across five thematic plots to supply the rooftop restaurants with fresh greens.

CapitaSpring has been accorded Green Mark Platinum & Universal Design GoldPLUS certifications by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore. 

The building also has amenities in support of the sustainable transport vision in the Singapore Green Plan 2030, including 165 bicycle lots, fully equipped end-of-trip facilities and a 600-meter cycling path around the building’s perimeter along Malacca Street and along Phillip Street, which forms part of the Central Area cycling network connecting to Singapore’s larger cycling network.

Designed by: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

Story by: Trendsideas