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

BRAC University

Sited on an urban lake, the vision is to present an innovative and sustainable inner city campus that exemplifies tropical design strategies in response to the hot, humid, monsoon climate of the Bangladesh region while demonstrating the sensitive integration of nature and architecture.

The design strategy is to create two distinct programmatic strata by floating the Academia above the lake and revealing a Campus Park below, reflecting the synergistic coexistence between mankind and mangrove. Through perforating the building form with breezeways, porous facades and garden terraces, and by sculpting the building section to direct breezes to sheltered gathering spaces, the campus is designed to breathe, with cross ventilation and indirect natural daylighting making tropical learning spaces without air-conditioning possible. Landscaping applied vertically and horizontally exemplifies the potential in multiplying greenery and open spaces within a dense, urban site and sets the direction that must be embraced to make Dhaka a modern, liveable, sustainable and humane city.

2017

  • LafargeHolcim Awards Asia Pacific - Bronze Winner

    Awarded by LafargeHolcim Foundation for Sustainable Construction

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.

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

Kampung Admiralty

Kampung Admiralty is Singapore’s first building to bring together a mix of public facilities and services under one roof. The traditional approach is for each government agency to have their own plot of land, resulting in standalone buildings. This one-stop integrated complex maximises land use and the benefits of co-location, and is a prototype for meeting the needs of Singapore’s ageing population.

The compact site, adjacent to a train station in medium-rise public housing area, prompted a layered ‘club sandwich’ approach. The result is a “Vertical Kampung (village)”, with a Community Plaza sheltered by a Medical Centre supporting a rooftop Community Park overlooked by apartments for seniors. These three distinct layers juxtapose the various building uses to foster diversity of cross-programming and frees up the ground level for activity generators. The proximity to healthcare, social, commercial and other amenities support inter-generational bonding and promote active ageing in place. The development has proven extremely popular, and was used as the backdrop for the Prime Minister’s 2018 National Day address, as a visual embodiment of Singapore’s aspirations for a more caring community environment.

2020

  • Asia Pacific Leadership in Green Building Awards - Shortlisted

    Leadership in Sustainable Design and Performance (Institutional) category, awarded by World Green Building Council

  • International Urban Project Award - Shortlisted

    Organised by Bauwelt Berlin and WA World Architecture Magazine, Beijing

2019

  • ArcAsia Awards for Architecture - Special Recognition

    Category B-4 (Specialized Buildings) category, awarded by Architects Regional Council Asia (ARCASIA)

  • SGBC-BCA Sustainability Leadership Awards 2019 - Design Award

    Leadership in Sustainable Design and Performance (Institutional), awarded by Singapore Green Building Council and Building and Construction Authority, Singapore

  • 18th SIA Architectural Design Awards 2019 - Design Award

    Commercial (Mixed Development) category, awarded by SIA

  • CTBUH Urban Habitat Award (Single-Site Scale) - Winner

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

  • CTBUH Best Tall Mixed-Use Building - Winner

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

  • 2019 Green Good Design Award - Winner

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

2018

  • World Architecture Festival - World Building of the Year

    Awarded by World Architecture Festival

  • World Architecture Festival - Shortlisted

    Mixed Use – Completed category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

  • HDB Design Award - Winner

    Completed Project – Mixed Development category, awarded by Housing & Development Board

  • International Chapter Architecture Awards - Commendation

    Commercial Architecture, awarded by The Australian Institute of Architects

2017

  • NParks Skyrise Greenery Award - Winner

    Outstanding and Excellence Award, awarded by National Parks Board, Singapore

2016

  • World Architecture Festival - Winner

    Commercial Mixed-Use (Future Projects) category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

2015

  • Landscape Excellence Assessment Framework (LEAF) - Outstanding Project

    Awarded by National Parks Board, Singapore

  • HDB Innovative Design Award - Winner

    Winner, under “To-Be-Built” Mixed Development category, awarded by Housing & Development Board, Singapore

2006

  • ArcAsia Awards for Architecture - Special Recognition

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