CapitaSpring
CapitaSpring
Completed in November 2021, the 280-metre tall CapitaSpring is a mixed-use high-rise development in the heart of Singapore’s financial district. Currently the city’s second-highest building, it is conceived as a vertical city that prioritises community engagement. The tower is divided into several zones with 61,500 sq metres of office space in the high zone, approximately 300 serviced residences in the low zone. In between, a unique, four-storey public space functions as a vertical park from the 17th–20th floors.
When the project was conceived in 2016, the design team’s idea to include a residential component required something of a leap of faith given it was the first building in the area to pursue such a strategy. The jury was impressed by the design ambition, its risk-taking approach, and its ultimate success in creating what is in effect a self-contained community rather than a typical mixed-use office project.
Several features stand out. First, as in many Singaporean buildings, biophilia and the incorporation into the structure of cascading layers of tropical greenery are strong themes. The manner in which these features have been implemented, however, is unusual. In particular, among a multitude of community spaces, a four-level ‘Green Oasis’ has been integrated into the core of the building between the office and residential layers, creating an imaginative 30-metre high open-air garden.
This publically accessible facility functions as a series of multi-level oases connected by a spiraling botanical promenade, providing multiple viewpoints of both the vertical park and the Singapore cityscape. Further open access green space is provided by a linear rainforest plaza at street level and a rooftop urban farm that is used as both a viewing deck and a source of produce for restaurants in the building.
One advantage of incorporating so much public space building (which authorities incentivised by not designating as gross floor area) is that developers were thereby able to maximise the structure’s height. According to one juror, the building “is put together in an innovative way, with the key being the amount of public space integrated into what is a very small [footprint], as well as the way so much of that has been brought up into mid-air.”
CapitaSpring is designated as Green Mark Platinum and Universal Design Gold. The development incorporates sustainable amenities such as electrical vehicle charging and infrastructure to support bicycles and public transport options. The premises is connected to the country’s wider cycling network and has 165 bike parking spaces and extensive end of trip facilities for use by both its own occupants as well as those of neighbouring buildings, which in many cases were constructed in the 70s and 80s and lack modern facilities of this type.
Another unusual component is the highly-popular hawker centre on the second and third floors. This facility was mandated by the government as a condition of sale and replicates a former facility located within the Golden Shoe Car Park that formerly occupied the site.
Although functioning basically as a food court, hawker centres can be regarded more as social amenities than the type of profit-oriented enterprises typically found in finely-detailed Grade-A towers. In conjunction with the many public open spaces and other communal areas spread across different levels of the building, CapitaSprings’ hawker centre invites the public inside, ensuring the entire building hosts a wider cross-section of society than is normally found in the CBD.
Finally, inclusion of the serviced apartment layer was novel not simply because it was a first in the local area, but also because it has incorporated residential space into the tower’s lower floors rather than (as usual) at the top. Once again, designers’ willingness to take risk and think outside the box has reaped dividends, with the unrestricted views offered by upper floor offices bringing premium rents for the landlord.