After jointly winning an international competition in 2018, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and CRA – Carlo Ratti Associati have completed Singapore’s second tallest high-rise in the heart of the densely built-up CBD (Central Business District). The building, constructed on the site of an obsolete parking garage, is accessed via covered walkways that lead to the 18-meter-high, open lobby, known as the City Room. From there, people reach the actual entrance halls leading to the various uses, as well as the Market Street Hawker Centre located in the base of the building, a type of public food court that was also previously located here. At 56 stalls, typical Singaporean street food is offered to both the building’s users and visitors.
On the lower floors of CapitaSpring, above the parking garage, there are partly two-story serviced apartments available primarily for business guests from the upper office floors but also for tourists. This offer is complemented by a wide range of amenities such as a swimming pool, running track, fitness rooms, communal kitchen, and barbecue areas, as well as the restaurants located in the building.
Above the residential floors is the green heart of the building, the so-called Green Oasis. Here, the vertical façade elements are pulled apart like light curtains, offering glimpses of a green landscape spanning four floors that invites people to linger, take a walk, and even do sports. Together with the also public green space on the rooftop, a total of 80,000 plants create a pleasant microclimate in the midst of the densely built-up environment.
The floors accommodating the building’s actual main use, the offices for the headquarters of CapitaLand, an international real estate company that is also the project’s developer, extend above the serviced residences. At the top of the high-rise, the façade opens up again, similar as it does at the height of the Green Oasis. The roof garden located there offers its visitors unique views over the city and the harbor out to the sea. In addition, well over 100 types of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers are grown here to supply the building’s restaurants.
In total, 8,300 square meters of green spaces have been integrated into CapitaSpring, which corresponds to 140 percent of the actual site area. Thus, the high-rise, with its offices, apartments featuring extensive amenities, restaurants, food market, and green spaces including recreational facilities, incorporates almost all the functions of a complete neighborhood.