Singapore Institute of Technology

The SIT-Plot 1 campus is uniquely endowed with an existing secondary forest. The design capitalises on this green site asset by integrating its learning environments with biophilic indoor-outdoor tropical spaces. To forge an imageable “Campus-in-a-Park” identity, the academic blocks are organised as a chain of buildings encompassing the central forest courtyard that is transformed into an accessible Community Park. This serves as the heart of SIT, contributing to a strong sense of place that is characterised by memorable nodes for interaction, recreation and rejuvenation.

The design leverages on the site’s undulating terrain by creating two public ground levels that segregate vehicles from pedestrians, creating a people-friendly, car-lite campus. These fenceless, 24/7 publicly accessible ground levels are interconnected across the Punggol Digital District, linking shared carparks and a series of key public spaces.

SIT’s primary signature library building is strategically located at the prime intersection between New Punggol Road and the pedestrianised Campus Boulevard as a prominent urban landmark.

On the rooftops, photovoltaic panels are arrayed as a banner of sustainability over the entire campus. These serve as a key renewable energy source that powers SIT’s Multi-Energy Micro Grid located within Plot 1. Productivity features include precast facades and structural systems for the academic blocks and structural steel for the long span bridges.

Image Credit: Shiya Creative Studio

Punggol Digital District

Punggol Digital District (PDD) is planned as part of Singapore’s strategy to sustain long-term economic growth by creating new development areas island-wide, bringing jobs and social amenities closer to residents.

Situated in Punggol North, PDD is envisioned to be a vibrant and inclusive district underpinned by cutting-edge technology, as well as urban and social innovation which make everyday living more convenient and sustainable. As Singapore’s first Enterprise District, PDD will provide flexibility for the land use mix and scale to be curated at district-level, enabling deeper integration and synergy of different uses and spaces to realise the vision of the District. The District is also planned to be connected to the greater Punggol area, with a car-lite, green, and vibrant environment.

Punggol Digital District will be the first district to adopt an integrated masterplan approach that brings together a business park, a university and community facilities and transport infrastructure. The district-level planning approach creates synergies, optimises land use and catalyses community building. It also allows us to design and integrate innovative technological platforms and from the ground up, transforming the way people work, live, learn and play in an inclusive and sustainable environment.

Image Credit: Finbarr Fallon, Darren Soh

Enabling Village

The Enabling Village is a demonstration of heartland rejuvenation through adaptive reuse of the old Bukit Merah Vocational Institute / Employment & Employability Institute (e2i) in Redhill. The site was previously fenced-in, inward-looking and did not contribute to the neighbourhood. The Masterplan conceives the Village as a new community heart and opens up the space as a park to connect people with disabilities, residents and public.

The design removes all physical barriers, extends linkages and creates a variety of shared spaces, gardens and amenities, breathing life between and within buildings. A simple robust palette of finishes and motifs was adopted as a kit-of-parts system to stitch together surfaces and spaces of the new and existing.

The porous and accessible nature of the Enabling Village creates an inclusive environment, integrating people with disabilities as equal in the community.

2019

  • ArcAsia Awards for Architecture - Mention

    Category D (Conservation Projects) category, awarded by Architects Regional Council Asia (ARCASIA)

2017

  • 2017 Design for Asia Award - Grand Award with Special Mention

    Awarded by Hong Kong Design Centre

2016

  • President's Design Award - Design of the Year

    Awarded by DesignSingapore Council and Urban Redevelopment Authority

  • 16th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2016 - Design Award

    Special Categories, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

  • BCA Universal Design Award - Winner (Platinum)

    Awarded by Building and Construction Authority, Singapore

Design Orchard

Design Orchard is located at a prominent junction along one of the world’s iconic shopping streets, Singapore’s Orchard Road. The building is designed to act as an incubator for emerging Singaporean designers: integrating a high-profile retail space at ground level with co-working creative spaces at levels two and three. Atop the building is a rooftop public space, which is tiered away from the junction to form an urban amphitheatre and stage along with a shaded pocket park. The collaborative spaces provide a nurturing environment for young designers to go from concept to production, market their products at the retail spaces below, and showcase their designs with fashion and design events at the rooftop garden amphitheatre.

The Tre Ver

The Tre Ver is a unique tropical residential living located at the riverfront, with multiple tiers of landscaped decks, pools and gardens. The development overlooks Kallang River and is an integral component in the rejuvenation of the Kallang River Masterplan. Organised to fit within the irregular-shaped plot, the development comprises of 729-units distributed across 5 tall blocks and 4 short blocks, above a 2 storey landscaped carpark podium.

The configuration and orientation of 5 tall blocks and 4 short blocks is designed to maximize river views. The design capitalizes the river and existing line of raintrees as a 200m long frontage and extends the blues and greens seamlessly into and up the development as a series of gardens, terraces, courtyards, pools and waterfalls, creating multiple amenity points in varying scales and characters.

The development is connected by 3 key amenity layers – Raintree Valley (2nd floor), Village Plaza (3rd floor) and Sky Loft (8th floor), providing amenities and gardens at the residents’ doorstep. The residential blocks continue the greenery vertically. The short blocks are designed with tiered contours planted with flowering and colourful shrubs and trees. The tall blocks contrast as orthogonal forms with sky gardens on every storey, terminating at both ends of the cross-ventilated lift lobby.

Overall, The Tre Ver is a building-as-garden with a variety of common spaces to promote vibrant communities, sustainable living and a distinctive home.

Newton Suites

This 36-storey residential tower is designed to create houses in the sky. Residents come home via a garden lift lobby, and can use the cantilevered skygardens as spillout spaces as an extension of the compact apartments. For over a decade, the green wall along these sky gardens was the world’s tallest green wall. The design, integrating sun shading elements and creeper screens positions itself as a blurry, green, domestically scaled, and spatially engaging environment, rather than a sealed, hermetic, abstract object.

The area of vegetation exceeds 130% of the total site – this achievement within a normal commercial budget led to the planning authority legislating for 100% replacement green in Singapore, a policy which has transformed the city in the intervening decade. This first resolution of the skygarden with structure, circulation and plan has been subsequently adopted across the city, and now the region, in numerous developments.

2013

  • Asia Pacific Property Awards - Highly Commended

    “Best Apartment” category, awarded by the International Property Awards

  • Asia Pacific Property Awards - Highly Commended

    “Best Residential High Rise Development” category, awarded by the International Property Awards

2010

  • ULI Awards for Excellence - Asia Pacific Winner

    Awarded by Urban Land Institute

  • MIPIM Awards - Finalist

    Residential Developments category, awarded by Reed MIDEM

2009

  • MIPIM Asia Awards - Winner

    Residential Developments category, awarded by Reed MIDEM

  • 3rd LIAS Awards for Excellence - Gold Winner

    Awarded by Landscape Industry Association (Singapore)

  • International Architecture Award - Winner

    Awarded by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies

  • Green Good Design Award - Winner

    Awarded by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies

  • ULI Awards for Excellence - Asia Pacific Finalist

    Awarded by Urban Land Institute

  • FIABCI Prix d'Excellence - First Runner Up

    Residential Category, awarded by The International Real Estate Federation

2008

  • Design for Asia Awards - Gold Award

    Awarded by Hong Kong Design Centre

  • President's Design Award - Honorable Mention

    Awarded by the DesignSingapore Council and Urban Redevelopment Authority

  • CTBUH 2008 Best Tall Building Award - Nominated

    Awarded by Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat, Chicago, Illinois

  • Award for International Architecture - Winner

    Awarded by Australian Institute of Architects

  • SIA-NParks Skyrise Greenery Award 2008 - Design Award

    Awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects and the National Parks Board, Singapore

  • Emirate Glass LEAF Awards - Finalist

    Category: Residential Building of the Year – Multiple Building Level, awarded by the Leading European Architects Forum

  • World Architecture Festival - Finalist

    Home, Housing Category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

  • The International Highrise Award 2008 - Finalist

    Awarded by City of Frankfurt, Deutsches Architekturmuseum and DekaBank

  • 9th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2008 - Honorable Mention

    Residential Projects Category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

  • Cityscape Asia Real Estate Awards 2008 - Best Developer

    Residential Built Category, awarded by Cityscape Asia

  • 2007 Emporis Skyscraper Awards - Silver Award Winner

    Silver Award Winner, awarded by Emporis

Stadium MRT Station

This project won an open international architectural competition for an underground train station at the Singapore National Stadium. The scheme, addressed the particular stadium issues of surge crowds and crowd holding areas by placing the unpaid areas at ground level, and providing a public plaza. The unusual half-underground station suggested a gorge or canyon. Inflected by the curve of the stadium, and reminiscent of a Richard Serra sculpture, the station is clad in custom-crafted louvres that create a shimmering complex surface like a textile or sedimentary rock.

No. 1 Moulmein Rise

WOHA’s first high-rise reinvents the tropical tower through re-imagining the curtain wall as a climatic device. Here, the bay window element allows the cool winds of the monsoon to naturally ventilate contemporary apartments even when it is raining. The monsoon window reinterprets in aluminium a bamboo device from the Borneo longhouses. The monsoon window is incorporated into a composition of repeated different functional facade elements – planter boxes, overhangs, sunshades – a design strategy of repeated, artfully distributed components which has been explored in subsequent projects.

2007

  • President's Design Award - Design of the Year

    Awarded by the DesignSingapore Council and Urban Redevelopment Authority

  • Aga Khan Award for Architecture - Winner

    Awarded by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.

2006

  • ArcAsia Awards for Architecture - Special Recognition

    Category A-2: Multiple-Family Residential, awarded by ArcAsia

2005

  • FIABCI Prix d'Excellence - Winner

    Residential Category, awarded by the International Real Estate Federation

2004

  • ar+d Awards - Commendation

    Awarded by The Architectural Review

  • Cityscape Architectural Review Awards 2004, Dubai - Commendation

    Residential Building Category, awarded by Cityscape & The Architectural Review

  • 7th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2004 - Design Award

    Residential Projects/Apartments & Condominiums Category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

Bras Basah MRT Station

The design of the Bras Basah MRT Station resolves the conflicting requirements of bringing daylight into a deep underground train station, and providing civic landscaping and open space at ground level. The solution was to provide a water covered glass roof, which acts as a reflection pool at ground level, and as a huge skylight from underground. The station roof reinforces the urban axes and reflects the historic museum and Cathedral of the Good Shepherd, and provides a forecourt to the new Singapore Management University.

The design creates delight for both the commuter and visitor to the civic district. The skylight brings light and views deep into the ground, turning a potentially oppressive, labyrinthine experience into a clear, direct and exciting journey from the earth to the surface. The visual connection is also important for avoiding panic in the case of an emergency underground, with commuters easily seeing how to exit the station. The natural light also permits the station to be used during the day without artificial lighting. The mass of the watergarden conducts heat out of the top of the void, and disperses it through evaporative cooling.

The station incorporates the cultural aspect of the neighbourhood into the design. The void below the water garden is designed to be used for digital projections at night, permitting collaborations with the Singapore Art Museum. During the day, sunlight coming through the watergarden projects images of the surface ripples onto the canyon walls and creating a rippling, ever-changing graphic effect as the sun moves across the sky. A lighting installation below the pool is triggered by the movement of trains, showing at the surface the activity taking place below the city.

2011

  • International Architecture Award - Winner

    Awarded by The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies

2010

  • Design for Asia Award 2010 - Bronze Award

    Awarded by Hong Kong Design Centre

  • National Award for International Architecture - Winner

    Awarded by Australian Institute of Architects

  • RIBA International Awards - Winner

    Awarded by Royal Institute of British Architects

  • 10th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2010 - Design Award

    Industrial, Transport & Infrastructure Projects category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

  • Land Transport Excellence Awards - Winner

    Best Design Infrastructure, Project Partner Category, awarded by Land Transport Authority, Singapore

2009

  • World Architecture Festival - World Transport Building of the Year

    Transport category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

Church of St. Mary of the Angels

The Church of St Mary of the Angels was designed for the Franciscan Friars and their parish church. The project includes the Church, the St Anthony Friary, the Poor Clare Monastery and an extensive columbarium. The focus of the design is community and expressing the church as an open and transparent institution.

The design is centred on an outdoor space that forms a forecourt to the various institutions, enabling community bonds to develop in this civic space. WOHA designed every element of the architecture, interiors, landscape and lighting for the complex, and incorporated several existing modernist buildings from the 1950s. The design took its direction from the particular focus of the Franciscan Friars on outreach and nature, to create a space for worship that is open and outward-looking – first to the garden and surroundings, and then to the wider community.

2016

  • World Architecture Festival - Finalist

    Mixed-Use (Completed) category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

2007

  • The 2007 Kenneth F. Brown Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award - Honorable Mention

    Awarded by School of Architecture

2006

  • President's Design Award - Design of the Year

    Awarded by DesignSingapore Council and Urban Redevelopment Authority

2004

  • International Prize Dedalo Minosse for Commissioning a Building 2004, Italy - Highly Commended

    Organised by ALA – Assoarchitetti, Vicenza Italy

  • 7th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2004 - Award Winner

    Institutional Projects/Religious Buildings Category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

  • 7th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2004 - Award Winner

     Interior Design/Commercial Category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

  • 9th SIA-ICI Colour Awards 2004 - Gold Award

    Architecture Category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects

  • 9th SIA-ICI Colour Awards 2004 - Gold Award

    Interior Category, awarded by the Singapore Institute of Architects