With 65 million travellers passing through in 2018 alone, and amenities that include a butterfly garden and a rooftop swimming pool, Changi Airport is one of the world’s leading transit hubs and a prominent part of Singapore’s identity. It’s now part of the city itself, thanks to the four-month-old, US$1.3 billion Jewel extension. Safdie Architects’ lead architect, Moshe Safdie, says he wanted the 130-thousand-square-metre complex to attract travellers and locals alike. He succeeded: Today, about 60 percent of Jewel’s visitors are from Singapore. “Many developers want Disney-like attractions,” he says. “[But those] have limited appeal for return visitors. I wanted something timeless that could uplift passengers from the stress of travel.”
A Paradisal Oasis
The centerpiece of Jewel is a tropical garden that spreads across 25 square metres and five stories, and contains more than 2,000 trees and palms and 100,000 shrubs. Visitors can explore the area, accessible 24 hours a day, via trails and walk (or bounce) above the treetops on a pair of sturdy, nearly 25-metre-high nets.
A glass canopy bridge (1) is suspended more than 22 metres above the ground. On top of everything sits the domed roof, made from 9,000 soundproof glass panels with small gaps between them for circulation. The 2,563 tons of glass filter in light for the plants while reducing heat. Safdie installed a displacement ventilation system to keep conditions warm for the plants. Mist from the waterfall cools the space and reduces the load on the cooling system. To avoid cluttering the main areas with lots of columns, each of the building’s 10 floors is held up by column clusters that start from a single base and fan out as they reach the ceiling.
An Unnatural Wonder
The building is shaped like a doughnut; rainwater flows into a hole where the world’s largest indoor waterfall sits—the Rain Vortex (2). Five-hundred-thousand litres of water pour from the opening in the dome to the building’s basement. When it is not raining, recirculated water is pumped back up to keep it running. California-based WET Design, run by former Disney Imagineers, created animated light shows to project o nto the cascade. An acrylic column catches the water as it reaches the bottom of the building and helps prevent splashing.
Refreshing Experiences
Away from the garden, the retail complex contains 200 stores, including the first Pokémon center in Asia outside of Japan and Nike’s largest outpost in Southeast Asia. The 90 restaurants range from A&W and Shake Shack to Singapore’s own Violet Oon (serving kueh pie tee and other Peranakan dishes) and Shang Social (3), the Shangri-La hotel group’s first standalone restaurant. Jewel’s top floor is devoted to recreational space, including outdoor terrace dining and an events plaza that holds up to 1,000 people. There’s also a hedge maze (4) and an enormous four-sided sculpture that doubles as a series of slides.
Seamless Connections
Changi worked with more than two dozen airlines to install early-check-in stations (5), allowing travellers to drop off their bags before exploring the extension. The complex houses a luxury lounge for passengers that connects to cruise ships and ferries, and a YotelAir hotel, which contains 130 “cabins”, bookable by the hour. A skytrain connects to the terminals, giving passengers a view of the garden and waterfall. To accommodate the influx of visitors, the airport parking lot was expanded to five levels that house some 2,500 cars. Jewel Changi is set to receive the highest rating from Singapore’s Green Mark programme for environmentally sustainable buildings.
Read more inside Fast Company SA’s October/November 2019 issue.
