The project, called Eden, is considered by Thomas Heatherwick of Heatherwick Studio as an alternative to standard glass and steel towers.
Singapore is known as the “garden city” – a beautiful tropical metropolis. The Heatherwick Studio team sought to use this quality, to establish a relationship between the artificial and natural environment. Instead of a hermetically sealed box, the designers created an open house. Straight lines meet organic ones, and lush vegetation fills the balconies. Residents of the city have already nicknamed the new building the “vertical palace of nature.”
“This is Heatherwick Studio’s first residential project and it was important to us that the people who live here feel part of the world that surrounds them. Smelling the greenery after the rain, hearing the leaves rustling in the wind – all this creates an environment that gives people a feeling of peace and well-being,” says the architect. London-based Heatherwick Studio worked on the building together with development company Swire Properties. They previously collaborated on the Pacific Place Contemporisation shopping center project in Hong Kong.
There are 20 apartments in a 20-story building. Each occupies an entire floor and has an area of about 300 square meters. meters and has four bedrooms. The lowest apartment is raised 23 meters above the ground: at the base of the tower there is an 18-meter high lobby and a swimming pool. In the center of the apartment is a spacious living room, which opens onto a large balcony planted with greenery. There are two smaller balconies on either side of the living room, and there are also balconies in the main bedrooms.
Structural concrete in earthy tones is used for the building, the balconies are made of contrasting light polished concrete, they are given an expressive “shell” shape. “Too often, balconies in residential buildings are made small, cramped, and are used only as storage rooms. We wanted our balconies to be inviting to the owners, so we planned them to be spacious and planted them with plants. Essentially, these are giant flowerpots. Their shape is convenient to accommodate soil and drainage, and the zher gives an organic shape to the façade.”
To encourage the use of open spaces and improve ventilation, staircases and elevators were located on one side of the building, and all living areas on the other. Thus, each apartment received a 270-degree view of the city and cross-flow of air in three directions.
