[Photo: Albert Kim KS]
[Photo: Patrick Bingham-Hall]
PROJECT Oasia Hotel Downtown
LOCATION
Singapore
COMPLETED
2016
SIZE
19,416
square meters
ARCHITECT
WOHA
In the heart of Singapore’s dense central business district, Oasia Hotel Downtown is a prototype of sustainable design in the urban tropics.
The 27-story tower, designed by Singapore-based architectural practice WOHA, has a reinforced concrete structure with an internal curtain wall, prefabricated fiberglass planters on a cantilevered reinforced concrete ledge, and a facade of expanded aluminum mesh panels that allows climbing plants to grow on the building.
[Photo: Patrick Bingham-Hall]
Planters are connected by an automatic irrigation system to minimize wastage and ensure timed watering twice a day. The massive vertical garden reintroduces biodiversity into the city and effectively compensates for the lack of green in surrounding buildings—indicative of the architects’ belief that even buildings in high-density areas can amplify living greenery within urban space. The plants and aluminum act as a sun break, absorbing heat and providing self-shading to combat the greenhouse effect in rooms.
The building has a structural core in each corner, making room for the open gardens and sky terraces that allow natural cross-ventilation and lighting to increase efficiency in the hotel's 314 rooms and 100 office units. The hotel’s enclosed spaces are cooled by a highly efficient variable chilled water system with variable speed driven chilled water and condenser water pumps. An advanced building management and control system are provided for measurement, control, and verification of chilled water systems operation.
