Goodwood Residence

The 210-unit Goodwood Residence adjoins Goodwood Hill, a 20-hectare tree conservation area dotted with colonial “Black and White” bungalows. Organised as two 12-storey L-shaped blocks, the 2.5-hectare development frames the view to the forested hill through an operable facade.

All blocks are one apartment thick, configured as “garden walls” that define and enclose a series of courtyards culminating in a 100m wide lawn and pool court, the heart of the development.

The ground floor units have private gardens and pools with sliding panels that allow either a walled courtyard or framed views over the borrowed landscape. Overlooking the central courtyard on the 2nd and 3rd storeys, are 15 units designed with “treehouse cabanas” perched amidst the treetop canopies. Rising above this tree line are the mid-levels (4th-11th storeys), which have overlapping double volume balconies.

The units are screened with an operable screen made from aluminium tubes which resemble a woven textile. The screen has operable sections that pivot up for open views or can be left down for privacy. The screen allows free flow of air into the naturally ventilated apartments.

The project has been awarded the prestigious GreenMark Platinum Award by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore.

Telok Ayer Street

WOHA’s former office is located in a 100 year old shophouse in the historic conservation district in the heart of the CBDin Singapore. The project was completed in only eight months, and was designed in 2001 and completed in 2002.

The old shophouse space was cut up spatially by a winding timber staircase. A new spiral staircase within a steel-clad drum allowed the floors to be developed as open plan spaces on each level. Planted roof terraces, glazed floors, timber decks, and a hanging mezzanine transformed the old utilitarian spaces at the rear into a contemporary studio space.

 

 

Watten Estate

The project involved developing a Singapore property with a single 1960’s bungalow into a group of 12 semi-detached houses. The challenge for the design of the project was to maximise use of the land, and create a product that would offer a fresh alternative to standard housing developments inSingapore, which are typified by tinted windows, grandiose imagery and encrusted ornamentation.

The architecture is expressed in a clear and controlled formal language, with an aim to create a light and airy living environment that allowed maximum enjoyment of the small plots. The project also aimed to allow energy-efficient performance through properly designing for the urban tropical environment and using low technology, practical domestic solutions. The design sought to allow the house to be easily opened up and naturally ventilated when required, but sealed up and efficiently air-conditioned when the weather gets too hot.

The project sets out to create clear forms, flowing space and clean lines. Transparency, openness and layering were pursued so that the feeling of space was pushed to the maximum. The spatial form of each house was developed around a central bay with two side aisles of space that interconnect in different ways and through varying filters and openings. A combination of fixed screens, adjustable louvres, frosted glass and blinds allow the inhabitants to adjust the environment to their comfort. Internal views through the use of voids, galleries and open stairs extend space vertically within the private domain to compensate for the lack of external space

Duxton Plain Competition

WOHA explored strategies of high-density living in a high-rise tropical environment, and urban strategies unique to the site. A central issue to the design was what Singaporean public housing should be. WOHA proposed that for subsidised housing, a higher degree of community interaction would be encouraged, building of community spirit. The design facilitated several scales of interaction.

At city level, a strong image on the skyline of the cluster of towers with hanging gardens was proposed. At the neighbourhood level, a strong street edge was made based on the shophouse structural bay and form, with commercial activities, a five-foot way, and the public park extended under the towers the popular Duxton Plain Park. This form enhanced the Chinatown busy street edge, while providing recreational areas within the site for public use. Views down the historic streets were improved by the rhythm and scale of the street-edge.

At village level, the “sky villages” were created – homes are placed in a high-rise community, linked by “sky streets” and “sky parks”. The covered sky streets led from the local village to the high-speed lifts, which brought the inhabitants down to street level. Sky parks were provided as places for recreation and socialising. In these common areas, people would be brought into contact in a natural way, and social bonds formed.

MeyerHouse

Along Meyer Road, in Singapore’s eastern residential enclaves, sits a condominium development housing 56 dwelling units adjacent to a 1 hectare forested park. The 5-storey with attic development is arrayed in a contiguous ‘C’ configuration with residences looking out onto a 50m by 75m internal forested garden that spills out onto the adjacent park.

Living spaces extend onto large outdoor rooms nestled amongst tall forest trees set amidst a formal English garden. Terracing gardens and water bodies cascade down onto a lower ground arrival level, opening up the subterranean arrival lobbies and facilities to natural daylight, ventilation and greenery.

From street level, the building is scaled to the proportions of a traditional French Chateau with a stately façade of customized louvers and panelling that envelops the entire form. The louvered façade is inclined to secure privacy for units from street level. The façade finishes extend onto the roof, creating an envelope that is sculptural and abstract.

Internally, the forested garden is cocooned by timber blinds that screen the residences imbuing the tranquil garden spaces with warmth and character. Within the garden, a long pool set centrally along the main axial views of the forested park reflect the tall trees and warm facades of the development. The pool is overlooked by guest and entertainment facilities that house a generous dining room, a cosy lounge and outdoor activity decks.

2023

  • Green Good Design Sustainability Awards - Winner

    Awarded by Chicago Atheneum in the Green Architecture category.

Pan Pacific Orchard

The design of Pan Pacific Orchard envisions a new prototype for high-rise tropical hospitality. This 23-storey 350-room building will become a distinctive garden hotel, adding to the green and spectacle along Singapore’s Orchard Road shopping belt.

To overcome the limited site area and to break down the scale, the design stacks 4 distinct strata with 3 Sky Terraces inserted as elevated grounds with amenities surrounded by gardens. The guest rooms are split into 3 stacks configured in L-shaped stacks overlooking either the Sky Terraces or city.

The 1st strata is designed as a Forest Terrace set between Claymore Road and Claymore Drive with a water plaza and cascades and edged by forest trees, creating a dramatic entrance and a memorable urban connection.

The 2nd strata is conceived as a Beach Terrace, offering guests a tropical oasis, with meandering sandy beachfront and palm groves around an emerald lagoon, set against Orchard Road.

The 3rd strata is set up as a Garden Terrace orientated towards the quiet residential estate of Claymore Hill. Flanked by the Bar and Lounge, the Terrace showcases a manicured garden, complete with verandah, lawn, fountains and garden.

The 4th strata is envisaged as a Cloud Terrace comprising of a 400 seat ballroom and event lawn, surrounded by thin mirror pools and filigree planting, washed by natural light filtering through the PV roof canopy.

The interiors are designed to reinforce the experience of each strata, offering a unique boutique-scale hotel experience. Huge living green columns with creepers visually connects the 4 stratas, juxtaposing against the stacked massing and lend the urban hotel with a touch of resort.

Crowne Plaza Changi Airport

Crowne Plaza Airport Hotel, at Terminal 3, Singapore, is designed to create a sensual “time-out” for the exhausted traveller – a quick shot of the steamy tropics, a taste of Singapore, new Asia, 24 hours a day.

Designed in 2006, the building “floats” on a delicate filigree floral cage that filters and softens the surroundings, filled with tropical vegetation. The guest rooms drift on a carpet of jungle, water, palms, suspended over the tangle of roads. Beneath the carpet the travellers are collected from the departure level, arrival hall and entrance road by sensuously flowing walls, and then gently guided towards service and hospitality spaces wrestled from the left over spaces between the roads.

The architecture and interior expression is derived from South-East Asian textiles and tropical jungle. The façade is a 3-dimensional batik fabric that provides 60% shading to the facade. The public areas are wrapped in flowing bands of timber veneer, glazed Thai tiles, Indonesian Batik and Chinese metal mesh. The ballroom is an abstracted forest under a ceiling of raintree canopies in perforated metal. Materials are intentionally rough, sensuous and intense, contrasting in colour, texture and solidity to counteract the blandness of commercial aviation environment.

2009

  • 3rd LIAS Awards for Excellence - Silver Winner

    Awarded by Landscape Industry Association (Singapore)

  • ULI Awards for Excellence: Asia Pacific - Winner

    Awarded by Urban Land Institute

  • Design & Engineering Safety Excellence Awards 2009 - Merit Award

    Commercial Category awarded by Building and Construction Authority

2008

  • Development of the Year 2008 - Winner

    Awarded by Hotel Investment Conference Asia Pacific (HICAP)

  • World's Best Airport Hotels 2008 - Finalist

    Awarded by ForbesTraveler.com

Crowne Plaza Changi Airport Extension

The Crowne Plaza Hotel Extension at Changi Airport is a glimpse into the not-so-distant future of construction, where work and safety conditions are greatly improved, waste is reduced, efficiency is increased significantly – and a ten-storey hotel structure can be built in 26 days. This project is a prototype of the prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction (PPVC) method and proves that this method is the logical next step in the evolution of construction processes, which have remained largely stagnant for the past decades.

The brief called for an extension building consisting solely of guestrooms and back of house necessities. This modular programme made the Crowne Plaza Extension an ideal project to adopt the PPVC method.

The extension adds 243 rooms to the hotel and complements the design of the existing structure, while possessing its own distinctive identity. Its façade was conceived not just in consideration of aesthetics and performance, but also in response to the requirements specific to the airport context.

The PPVC method nearly cut the manpower required to construct the new extension in half – from 75 workers per day, to 45 workers. It significantly reduced the construction duration – by two thirds – needing an average duration of only 3-4 days per floor, compared to 14-21 days when using conventional construction techniques.

The units were pre-fabricated in Shanghai, and all rooms were fitted with carpeting, tiles and all other fixtures found in hotel rooms, before being shipped to Singapore. On site, the units were stacked like Lego blocks with an average of 10 PPVC modules per day.

The interiors are multi-functional with thoughtful touches and a material palette that ties in with the hotel’s urban resort theme, encapsulating the Singaporean identity – tropical, Asian, multi-cultural and welcoming yet cosmopolitan, efficient, and stylish.

48 North Canal Road

The project brief called for a new boutique office and the reconstruction of a pair of heritage-listed shophouses.

As the original floor levels with their low ceiling heights were retained, the frontend of the shophouses was deemed more suitable for meeting rooms, while the service end accommodated a mechanised carpark. The open plan offices within the upper 4 floors was strategically lifted up so that floor plate size is maximised, higher headroom is gained, better views are enjoyed and more natural daylight is accessed from the sides. Every flat roof area is also transformed into roof gardens with the attic featuring the office’s recreational lounge.

The main design strategy was to invert the shophouse typology by carving out valuable floor area to create an externalised, urban, public pocket park at the very heart of the office instead. A café, break-out areas and meeting rooms are organised around this park, enjoying the greenery and light that it brings to the deep plan.

The formal architectural language of fractal, triangulated geometry originated from the need to comply with authority requirements of having splayed corners as the building is bounded by three roads. This inspired a chiselled expression that was carried through in both plan and elevation, taking the form of internal angled walls and external slanted planes, revealing a concave curtain wall like that of crystal embedded in the hollow lower strata of its atrium park space. Shading was also built into the formal language by means of an integrated sun screen within the curtain wall system and a series of perforated aluminium panels

2014

  • Green Good Design Award - Winner

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

  • Building of the Year Award - Winner

    Offices category, awarded by ArchDaily

2013

  • URA Architectural Heritage Award - Winner

    Category B – Integrated ‘Old and New’ Developments, awarded by URA

  • World Architecture Festival - Finalist

    Office category, awarded by World Architecture Festival

29 HongKong Street

WOHA’s own office in Singapore is housed in a converted shophouse near to the river.

Two adjacent units of the traditional building typology were merged into one to house the office’s growing needs for space. Apart from the more traditional office elements like studios and meeting rooms, 29 HongKong Street also accommodates a gallery (WOHAGA), extensive roof terraces and a fully equipped kitchen and lounge.

While the front facade is protected by conservation guidelines, the more recent extension in the rear allowed more substantial changes. The top floor, previously cramped under a pitch roof, was converted into double-storey loft like space.

The traditional element of the shophouse courtyard was maintained for visual connection between the studios as well as cross ventilation. It also acts as an experimental ground for ongoing research and development of green wall systems.

In the extensive fit-out works on the building’s interior, furniture designs from the old office were developed further, transporting aspects of the familiar environment and its atmosphere to the new location.