Jury Citation
Oasia Hotel Downtown is a mixed-use hotel and commercial development that envisions what a tropical skyscraper could be. The extensive use of landscaping is unprecedented, achieving green cover over 10 times the area of the building site.
The architects have configured a series of L-shaped floor plans, rotated at 180 degrees in relation to each other, to create shadows through space instead of façade treatments. The four corner cores allow for the creation of unobstructed central voids that effectively duplicate the ground plane at four different levels. This creates sky gardens for recreation and social interaction while opening out views to various parts of the city.
As the creeping plants cover the building skin, the red mesh façade cladding recedes into the background, marking the passage of time. The living tower addresses the loss of green spaces within the fabric of the city by reintroducing biodiversity and providing visual relief not only within the building but outside as well.
The Jury commends the architects for making a bold statement by reinventing the typology of mixed-use towers in the city and creating a biophilic environment, where nature and urban development can coexist harmoniously.
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Nominator Citation
Philip Ng
Chief Executive Officer
Far East Organization
Oasia Hotel Downtown is built on a government land sales site in Tanjong Pagar, an evolving precinct that straddles the old and new faces of downtown Singapore. It incorporates PS100, small strata offices, as an integral component of the development.
WOHA, along with Spanish interior designer Patricia Urquiola, were challenged to bring to life new interpretations of this live-work-play environment in an urban setting. Oasia Hotel Downtown’s distinctive architecture adds to the profile of the city’s skyline. Its façade features prominent red cladding designed to support creepers and flowering plants which rise to form a living green skin. The building has an overall greenery replacement of over 10 times the site area.
The designers grappled successfully with how spaces within this hotel cum commercial building should be experienced. They wove together light and nature into the building’s hardscapes, creating open, functional and comfortable tropical spaces filled with greenery, natural light and fresh air. The lush plantings and waterscapes in the elevated gardens serve as multiple ground levels in the sky, creating large public areas for recreation and for people to mingle.
WOHA’s design focus on nature and wellness has sharpened Oasia’s brand proposition, creating new opportunities for travellers to refuel, refresh and recharge. The design has also embedded a workplace culture where users value creative, flexible work spaces that have a sense of community and connectivity. It has made the building much more welcoming, humane and liveable.