ARC Studio is known for its high density urbanism work such as the pioneering Pinnacle@Duxton that redefined high-rise public housing in Singapore. How does The Tembusu build upon these ideas?
Khoo Peng Beng (PB): When we were doing Duxton, there were three things that really inspired us. One was for high-density buildings to look very porous, light and not feel like a wall. The second thing is to host a lot of greenery to bring nature closer to the residents. The third is creating architecture that facilitates the formation of community.
We were doing this quite intuitively in Duxton, but in recent years, neuroscience and social science has added to our knowledge of public spaces and community building, such as what makes a city happy and liveable. The Tembusu expresses these ideas of human-scale with its “thick skin”. The original variation of the tropical high-rise came from the International Style, which is basically enclosed by a glass wall that can be very alienating. But in the tropics, the lighting, the rain condition and the exposure are different. A lot of people want to be able to go outdoors. A building with a thick skin can host greenery and also public spaces. It’s also an environmental filter that creates a new tropical identity for the building. The Tembusu is one expression of this living façade.
Did this aim of achieving human-scale lead to the creation of a high-rise that gives “the sensation of a low-rise apartment living”? How was this achieved?
Belinda Huang (BH): Rather than a reaction to thescale, the main selling point was the community space. By bringing sky terraces up, the space feels a little more intimate because it’s only six floors. This means that three floors will have the view of a tree on the sky terrace and the upper three floors can look down on it. This also gives owners that sense of a smaller scale.
Usually, sky terraces are full floors and you have to go to the ground level to meet people. But what we’ve created are more “landed units” by designing sky terraces that come right in front of the unit. They are public areas and residents can walk in front of the units. It’s intimate yet, there is a certain distance because there is enough green between the pathway and the balcony. This is what some of the studies about creating a “happy city” talk about—a balance between private and public.
Laurence Liew (LL): With a bit of creativity, you can create a lot of variability in high-density living and humanise the design. In Duxton, we explored the sky terraces built within the floor plane. When you are in an apartment which is not on this floor, you 3 still see yourself as being in a fairly typical high-rise. But in The Tembusu, the sky terrace is basically a plane that wraps around the building. This second layer helps residents feel the green environment when they look out through the windows, even for those whose apartments are not sitting directly on the plane. In a typical condominium, you have to look down to appreciate your condo’s grounds, so you don’t feel it because it’s too far.
PB: Bringing the “ground” upwards and creating a sense of scale are very important for humans to feel safe and comfortable. As our buildings get bigger and taller, public spaces tend to feel less intimate.
Bringing greenery and public spaces into the façade of the building allows users to experience that intimacy again. The neighbourhood around The Tembusu is also primarily low-rise. By creating three stacks of low-rise buildings—one on top of the other—it helps connect the condominium to the landed properties around it.