Gardens by the Bay

Singapore

Singapore ‘s latest addition to its public infrastructure success list is the Gardens by the Bay.

Located within the Marina Bay Sands precinct, the attractions within The Gardens include Flower Dome, Cloud Forest, Supertree Grove, Heritage Gardens, The World of Plants, Dragonfly Lake, Kingfisher Lake and Bay East Garden.

There are nine cafes and restaurants for visitors to choose from.

 The Cloud Forest is housed in a dome-like structure that is fully air-conditioned.

A 35-metre tall “mountain” is overgrown with lush vegetation and at the top of this structure is where the world’s tallest indoor waterfall begins its steep ascend down to the bottom.

 Cloud forest water cycle
Before water becomes part of a waterfall, it must reach the cloud forest floor as:

1. Throughfall – rain falling through gaps in the canopy
2. Stemfall – water flowing down the outside of branches and tree trunks
3. Crown drip – most rain hits the canopy and drips from leaves
4. Fog drip – mist turns to water droplets as it comes in contact with vegetation, this can drip from leaves and mosses. 

 The water is either used by the plants and animals for survival, evaporated back into the atmosphere or be stored in the soil and pools, feeding humble streams or mighty waterfalls.

 Some of this water is stored in the soil reservoir and slowly makes its way down the mountain in trickles, gushes or even as part of a mighty waterfall, supplying water to people, plants and animals who live below.

 The moss and lichen covered branches of the cloud forest capture the water from the fog that is blown from the ocean. This process adds hundreds of millimeters of water to the ecosystem every year.

The secret world tells a story of an ancient and long lost world – the plants here belong to families that were abundant in the distant past, yet today, they have become increasingly rare.

At the top of the world, you are at an altitude of about 2,000m above sea level. Below you, the forest floor is at approximately 1,000m above the sea.

Hubmann Vass

Vienna

 The aim of the new circulation system at the Castello di Rivoli and the redesign of the southeast flank of the adjoining hillside is to create a closer link between the city and the castle. Rivoli, a small town on the western edge of Turin, is dominated by this monumental eighteenth-century Juvarra building, which was never completed. The castle, the culmination of a 13-kilometer-long baroque axis heading from the city to the countryside, sits atop a moraine. Castello di Rivoli currently houses an internationally renowned museum of contemporary art. The hill’s ridge is one of the city’s most important green spaces, while the largely unused areas surrounding the castle – particularly those on the southeast – hold potential for urban recreational space of the first order. The design seeks to use the outdoor spaces sustainably and link them more closely to the museum.

 The prominent southeast slope of the hill, the site of the intervention, takes on a new key role. Across from the historic approach to the castle on the northwest side of the hill, facing away from the city, due to its location between the city’s “back” side and the incomplete garden wing of the castle (its monumental terraces were never realized), it remained inaccessible and undefined, an “inner periphery” – for centuries. The divergent scales of the city and the castle come together unmitigated in this interstitial space. This tension creates the setting for sustainable, not-for-profit uses, and can thus be manifest in a positive manner. The design lodges this inner periphery in the consciousness of the city’s residents and visitors on three different levels: as urban landscape with a new planting concept, as recreational space within walking distance, and, by means of the escalators and ramps incised in the hillside, as a direct connection. The small-scale building components in coloured concrete and Corten steel, as well as the surfaces wrought in Istrian limestone, gravel, and rammed earth emerge from the otherwise completely green hillside.

 -Paths and stopping points: The existing narrow streets, which served more to reroute traffic around the city centre than to provide access to the castle, have now been closed to automobile traffic and are the framework for the new system of paths. Embedded in the orchard, a truncated piece of an old street tied into the overall design via stairs and ramps serves as a place to pass time. A group of mature cedars shades a new system of stairs that is interspersed with terraces and flat segments of the path.

Access by escalator: On the side of the hill facing Turin, an intricate pattern of visual relationships is woven by the cuts in the slope and the traces of the spaces embedded within the slope, and dynamically frames the specific scales present in the surroundings – a smaller version of the system of axes in Turin’s landscape, between Venaria Reale, Stupinigi, Superga and Rivoli. The ascent and descent take different paths: via ramps, terraces, stairs and escalators, and through galleries, courtyards and grottoes, a relaxed, rhythmic sequence of movement, deemed La Ronde, provides surprising views of the buildings in Rivoli’s historic centre and Turin’s landscape.

Green Cast

Odawara-shi, Kanagawa prefecture | Japan | Completed May 2010 – June 2011 

The facade of the building is covered with planters made of aluminum die-cast panels, which provides space for facilities. The 3 (up to 6) aluminum panels, which also form planters, are made in mono block casting. Each panel is slanted, and its surface appears to be organic, of which cast comes from decayed styrene foam. Equipment such as watering hose, air reservoir for ventilation and down pipes are installed behind the panels so that the facade can accommodate a comprehensive system for the building.

 photographer: Daici Ano

 

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8 House

Copenhagen | Denmark | Completed 2010 

 With spectacular views towards the Copenhagen Canal and over Kalvebod Fælled’s protected, open spaces, 8 House will not only be offering residences to people in all of life’s stages as well as office spaces to the city’s business and trade - it will also serve as a house that allows people to bike all the way from the ground floor to the top, moving alongside townhouses with gardens winding through an urban perimeter block.

8 House is where you will find the attention to detail embedded in a larger context. Here, closeness thrives in the 60,000 m2 building. This is where the tranquillity of suburban life goes hand in hand with the energy of a big city, where business and housing co-exist. 8 House is where common areas and facilities merge with personal life, and where you can reach for the stars at the top of the building’s green areas. The building’s housing program offers three kinds of accommodation: apartments of varied sizes, penthouses and townhouses. With a mix of suburban tranquillity and urban energy, the townhouse and its open housing is ideal for the modern family, while singles and couples may find the apartments more attractive. And for those who live life to the fullest, the penthouses function as a playground with fantastic views over the canal and Southern Copenhagen. The different housing typologies are united by the exterior dimensions which provide inspiration for adventures, inspiring communities.

8 House’ 50,000 m2 accommodates 475 residential units. The base consists of 10,000 m2 businesses, spread out at street level alongside the surrounding main streets, and at the Northern court yard that houses an office building. 8 House is partly for rent housing and partly residential property varying from 65 to 144 m2.

photographer: Jens Lindhe