Singapore’s Bio-Architecture Revolution

Singapore is spearheading a future revolution: melding nature and technology in a best-of-both-worlds civic transformation.

Marina Bay is the technological and trendsetting heart of Singapore: a brilliant municipal jewel built on reclaimed land, gradually won back from the waters starting in the 1970s. And over the past two centuries, Singapore's land area has increased by 25 percent. That land has been filled with nature-inspired, eco-forward institutions, such as the ArtScience Museum.  

A Blooming Lotus For Blooming Minds

Opened in 2011, the ArtScience Museum is also "The Welcoming Hand of Singapore," or the lotus building. It is "an iconic cultural landmark in Singapore [whose] mission is to explore where art, science, culture, and technology come together." 

The exhibits and the museum are the cumulative, multi-discipline efforts of countless architects, designers, artists, and numerous other scientists and visionaries. Some are hands-on, some are based on popular lore or media, and others, like the previously featured 2219: Futures Imagined, explore essential, inescapable topics like our upcoming world of 200 years onward.

The museum’s form meshes with everything that influenced and influences it. Rains are funneled through the building's central atrium into a 35-meter-tall waterfall and reflecting pool, before being used throughout the building. The architectural ten fingers, tipped by skylights leading down curved interior walls, imbue the structure with unique, soothing light.  

From a Lotus to the Stinkiest Fruit in the World

Singapore’s premier, supremely modern performing arts center is the durian-like Esplanade. Yet it didn’t begin its life as a durian, the spiky-skinned fruit considered the world's most malodorous, and compared with some of the smelliest things in existence. Initial designs included a lantern, flower, "concrete blobs," bread loaves, and marshmallows.

The spikes are cladding, "aluminum sun shades affixed to double-glazed glass ceilings." They block the heat but let light in, favorably impacting the venues' energy use and aesthetics while keeping visitors comfortable. They also require two months to clean.

The theater complex includes multiple progressive green initiatives, including waste management systems and cleaning strategies that replace traditional chemicals with ozone-enriched water. Switching from fluorescent to LED lighting led to savings of 2.63 million kilowatt hours, the amount of electricity needed by "553 four-room HDB flats (Singapore's public housing apartments) in a year."

The proliferation of trees beautifies the space and provides a wonderful way to offset the site's carbon footprint. In another eco-minded design the theater also consists of Y-shaped pillars, which support the durian domes, also collect rainwater that’s used to clean the façade and feed the greenery.

The Supertrees of Singapore

Another attention-arresting cultural jewel in the Central Region, the Gardens by the Bay. This more-than-hundred-hectare nature park seamlessly meshes the human-made and the not. In addition to multiple conservatories, domes, and other garden formats, it's much lauded for its Supertree Grove, a grove of 18 globally unique "Supertrees," ranging from about 80 to 160 feet in height.

Structurally, the Supertrees are a mix of concrete and steel. Conceptually, they combine environmental advances, futuristic aesthetics, and living architecture. They host well over 200,000 plants across more than 200 species, including orchids, bromeliads, and ancient ferns. In addition to acting as vertical gardens, some Supertrees are fitted with photovoltaic cells to harvest the Sun's power, while others collect rainwater or serve as air exhausts.  

A Global Lesson

Singapore's focus is indispensable in the most important ways. Rekindling the public's love for the natural world is key to every environmental effort. There's no reason nature and technology shouldn't, couldn't, or wouldn't work together for a singular goal, and this provides a stellar example.  

Beltim & Associates also highly prizes the mixing of tradition and advance, which must always be balanced to lead the most efficient way forward. And we'd love to help you forward your next project, so contact us or get a free quote today!