Singapore, Republic of Singapore
The newly completed Jewel Changi Airport, designed by Moshe Safdie in Singapore, has a green soul.
The Israeli architect uses steel and glass to build the hub linking three of the four terminals at one of Southeast Asia’s most important airports.
The project has been awarded a 2021 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Fulfilling its mission as a connector between the existing terminals, Jewel combines two environments—an intense marketplace and a paradise garden—to create a new community-centric typology as the heart, and soul, of Changi Airport.
In its initial conceptual stage as an unbuilt project, Changi Airport won a 2016International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
Jewel re-imagines the center of an airport as a major public realm attraction.
Jewel offers a range of facilities for landside airport operations, indoor gardens, leisure attractions, retail offerings, and hotel facilities, all under one roof.
A distinctive dome-shaped façade made of glass and steel adds to Changi Airport’s appeal as one of the world’s leading air hubs.
Based on the geometry of a torus, the building shape accommodates the programmatic need for multiple connections in the airport setting.
At the heart of its glass roof is an oculus that showers water through a primary multistory garden, five stories through to the forest-valley garden at ground level.
The core of the program is a 24-hour layered garden attraction that offers many spatial and interactive experiences for visitors.
Four cardinal axes—north, south, east, and west—are reinforced by four gateway gardens, which orient visitors and offer visual connections to the internal surroundings and other airport terminals.
The new facility houses the Shiseido Forest Valley, a terraced natural paradise in which over 120 species of plants thrive in an artificially controlled environment.
Here travelers can relax, stroll and admire the spectacular Rain Vortex, the highest indoor waterfall in the world.
Connected to the other terminals by pedestrian bridges and an elevated train whizzing through the vegetation, the building is supported by 14 columns and a ring beam and extends for a total of 135 thousand square meters distributed over ten floors, five of which are basements and car parks.
At the center of a “donut-shaped” roof that measures over 200 meters, there is a 40 meter-high
opening from which waterfalls freely.
By night, the glazed facade helps dematerialize the building, revealing the glowing garden within.
“Jewel weaves together an experience of nature and the marketplace, dramatically asserting the idea of the airport as an uplifting and vibrant urban center, engaging travelers, visitors and residents, and echoing Singapore’s reputation as ‘The City in the Garden’,” states Moshe Safdie.
Architects: Safdie Architects
Executive Architects: RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd.
Landscape Architects: PWP Landscape Architecture
Executive Landscape Architects: RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd.
Structural Engineers: Buro Happold Engineering:
Graphic Designers: Pentagram
Client: China Overseas Grand Oceans Group Limited
