Dense + Green: Experiments for Singapore's New Waterfront
Singapore, 2010-11
Academic Work: Harvard University, Graduate School of Design
Course Instructor: Thomas Schroepfer
Area: 401,000sqm
​
Tanjong Pagar Waterfront is currently one of the world's busiest ports and has been recently identified as Singapore's next waterfront city. Dense + Green explores possibilities of integrating green spaces within a high density residential/mixed-use complex.
The project puts forward the idea of maintaining open green spaces within a highly populated urban setting, in order to relieve the congestion that is generated by growth and densification. A public park, or an urban forest, is proposed to cover the site at its ground level, which has an area typical of a Manhattan block. The main programme components [housing within cultural, research and leisure centres] are bound within towers that begin to form the boundaries of the site itself at the corners, and subdivide the park inside to relate more closely to the scale of the project. This arrangement reverses the roles of built environment and nature, where the latter is emphasized to form a breathing outlet inside the city.
The private areas of the towers are comprised of housing units that vary in size to accommodate different space requirements. The layout of the units is drawn from a structural grid, and the units are stacked and interlocked in a way to maintain permeability within the structure. shaded outdoor spaces [private gardens] within the arrangements facilitate natural lighting and ventilation for each unit.
The role of the urban forest is maintained as it travels vertically within the corners of the four [L-shaped] towers. The spaces generated by dissolving the corners offer diverse spatial conditions and are loaded with different programmes [cultural, academic, etc...] to correspond with the public role that each tower serves. This continuum of the public realm forms connections between the private units and the public components. The diversity of these open-air [green] spaces is also reflected, and implied, by the subtle irregularities within the grid facades.