This 36-storey development is a study of environmental solutions to the problems of tropical high-rise living. The design integrates several sustainable devices, creating a contemporary addition to the city skyline.
The building sits at the edge of a high-rise zone and fronts a height-controlled area that affords expansive views of the central nature reserves; a rare luxury in densely built Singapore.
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Newton Suites tower
The exterior of the tower uses sunshading elements, patterned planes of textured panels and protruding balconies to create a façade that is functional yet expressive. The horizontal, metal expanded mesh screens the strong tropical sunlight. The angled mesh prevents insolation, while permitting visual connection to the ground. The angled expanded mesh changes appearance with viewpoint, appearing anywhere between solid and transparent. This gives the building a constantly shifting, blurred appearance depending on angle and time of day.
Landscape is used as a material – rooftop planting, sky gardens and green walls were incorporated into the design from the very beginning. Creeper screens are applied to otherwise blank walls to create visual delight, absorb sunlight and carbon and create oxygen in the dense environment. Most available horizontal and vertical surfaces are landscaped.
Trees cover the car park, project from the sky gardens at every fourth level and crown the building at the penthouse roof decks. The above-ground car park uses far less energy than an underground car park and is fully enclosed with creepers, absorbing exhaust emissions. The car park roof houses a substantial clubhouse with gym, steam room, party areas and 25m swimming pool with a glass overflow edge.
The end user experiences panoramic views foregrounded by sky gardens and greenery, bringing the indoor-outdoor potential of living in the tropics into the sky, and bringing this to a sector of the community who cannot afford landed housing. Sky gardens create delight at every lift lobby, turning the wait for the lift in the rush to work into a brief contact with fresh air, trees and sky. The two penthouses include swimming pools with mesh pergolas.
The environmental elements added to liveable apartments and extensive communal areas combine to make a unique tropical building that achieves both Singapore's national vision for a green city and an improved living environment for its inhabitants.
