20 coolest buildings in Singapore.

I saw several Youtube videos of people listing their most favourite, coolest or iconic buildings in Singapore just now and it escalates my interest to compile a list of my own too. I have been staying in Singapore for about a year now and I’m really fascinated with some amazing buildings over here. Singapore do really know how to build icons with impressive design and architecture. After a bit of research, here are the 20 coolest buildings in Singapore (based on my personal view). I have visited 13 of them so far and I planned to visit the rest soon. (the list here is not in particular order).

1 – Marina Bay Sands

Quick info: An integrated resort of three hotel towers topped with 340m long SkyPark, casino, shopping mall, Art & Science Museum, Helix Bridge and convention centre. It was billed as the world’s most expensive standalone casino property at S$8 billion, including the land cost during its opening.

Architect: Moshe Safdie

Year opened: 2010

2 – Reflections at Keppel Bay

Quick info: A residential complex of 6 sleek curving towers and 11 low-rise villa apartments.

Architect: Daniel Libeskind

Year opened: 2011

3 – The Hive @ Nanyang Technological University

Quick info: Also known as the Learning Hub, the building consists of 12 eight-storey towers arranged around a naturally ventilated public atrium. The towers that contain corner-less classrooms taper towards the base. Building popularly called as the ‘dim-sum basket’.

Architect: Thomas Heatherwick

Year opened: 2015

4 – The Interlace

Quick info: A 1000-unit apartment complex with design that looks like 31 bricks irregularly stacked upon one another, resembling Jenga blocks. It was named World Building Of The Year in 2015 World Architecture Festival.

Architect: OMA & Ole Scheeren

Year opened: 2013

5 – Esplanade – Theatres on the Bay

Quick info: A performing arts centre near the mouth of Singapore River. Nicknamed the ‘durian building’, the design consists of two rounded space frames fitted with triangulated glass elements and sunshades.

Architect: DP Architects & Michael Wilford & Partners.

Year opened: 2002

6 – School of Art, Design and Media @ Nanyang Technological University

Quick info: Campus building with sloping green roof. Another similar building to this is the Marina Barrage’s visitor centre.

Architect: CPG Consultants Pte. Ltd.

Year opened: 2006

7 – Golden Mile Complex

Quick info: A fine example of brutalist architecture. A high-rise commercial and residential building in a stepped-terrace structure.

Architect: DP Architects

Year opened: 1973

8 – The Colonnade

Quick info: A residential tower that also resembles Jenga block; boxes protruding in and out between exposed round concrete columns.

Architect: Paul Rudolph

Year opened: 1985

9 – ParkRoyal on Pickering

Quick info: ‘Hotel-in-a-garden’ concept. Extensive greenery incorporated into glass-clad hotel building in the form of elevated terraced gardens.

Architect: WOHA

Year opened: 2013

10 – Sky Habitat

Quick info: Two stepping residential towers with bridging sky gardens.

Architect: Moshe Safdie

Year opened: 2015

11 – The Pinnacle @ Duxton

Quick info: 50-storey residential development of 7 towers connected by the world’s two longest sky gardens (on 26th and 50th floor) at 500m length each. All seven towers are the world’s tallest public residential buildings. Conferred the 2010 Best Tall Building (Asia and Australasia) award by Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH).

Architect: ARC Studio Architecture + Urbanism, RSP Architects

Year opened: 2009

12 – Oasia Hotel Downtown

Quick info: A distinctive looking hotel building due to its red aluminium mesh cladding with different tones and acts as a backdrop for creepers. Open spaces carved out from the tower to create public spaces on the sky. Awarded Best Tall Building Worldwide in 2018 by CTBUH.

Architect: WOHA

Year opened: 2016

13 – DUO Twin Towers

Quick info: Two expressive sculptural towers with honeycomb patterned facade.

Architect: Ole Scheeren

Year opened: 2018

14 – Marina One

Quick info: Mixed-use development (two residential towers and two office towers) enveloping ‘The Heart’, a podium with courtyard that features extensive greenery and landscaping. A perfect example of ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ statement applied to a building. Highlight of the complex is not on its external facade (typical massive, box glass buildings) but on its contrasting fluid internal perimeter.

Architect: Ingenhoven Architects

Year opened: 2018

15 – Jewel @ Changi Airport

Quick info: A shopping mall with indoor gardens and the world’s tallest indoor waterfall by the airport. Newly opened.

Architect: Moshe Safdie & RSP Architects

Year opened: 2019

16 – SkyVille @ Dawson

Quick info: Highlight of this residential complex is the public, external, shared spaces interwoven through the cluster of towers from ground to roof. Fine example of great passive and sustainable design as well as community living.

Architect: WOHA

Year opened: 2015

17 – Gardens by the Bay

Quick info: Futuristic looking nature park spanning 101 hectares on reclaimed land. Main features are the two cooled conservatories (Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, the former being the largest glass greenhouse in the world, they are both column-less) and Supertree Grove (tree-like structures with elevated walkway).

Architect: Conservatories by WilkinsonEyre and Grant Associates, Supertree Grove by Grant Associates.

Year opened: 2012

18 – Kampung Admiralty

Quick info: Singapore’s first integrated retirement community project. Named 2018 World Building Of The Year at the 2018 World Architecture Festival. The scheme builds upon a layered ‘club sandwich’ approach. A “Vertical Kampung (village)” is devised, with a Community Plaza in the lower stratum, a Medical Centre in the mid stratum, and a Community Park with apartments for seniors in the upper stratum.

Architect: WOHA

Year opened: 2018

19 – Lasalle College of the Arts

Quick info: A cluster of sculpted blocks arranged around a central public social space defines the form of the campus.

Architect: RSP Architects

Year opened: 2007

20 – National Stadium @ Singapore Sports Hub

Quick info: A multi-purpose stadium that features a domed roof structure with retractable roof (the world’s largest retractable dome). It also has configurable seating on the lowest tier to make it the only stadium in the world that is custom designed to host football, rugby, cricket and athletics events. Has maximum seating capacity of 55 000.

Architect: DP Architects

Year opened: 2014

So which one are your favourite buildings? Or is there any spectacular buildings that I have missed out? Feel free to comment.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

 

 

12 Coolest Office Spaces In The World.

Have you ever feel bored and moody while working and your surrounding office environment makes it even worse for your day? Have you ever wish to complain of your poor and dull working environment to your employer but afraid of doing so? Here is a list of 12 coolest and most well-designed office spaces in the world that will make you jealous. This list is compiled from ‘Architecture and Design’ website by MMK on July 18^th, 2014; most of the article is shared here in my blog from the original source at this link: http://www.architecturendesign.net/12-of-the-coolest-offices-in-the-world/.

Some offices can be boring and stifling, but definitely not these (below). Not all work spaces were created equal – some can reduce workers’ morale while others can keep them happy and inspire them to be more energetic and creative. For companies like Google, which require smart, creative and in-demand workers, such offices offer a competitive edge when trying to attract young and intelligent employees.

There are many different ways to make an office cater to its workers. Some of these offices feature athletic equipment that helps workers reduce stress or get their blood flowing (which is always important if you sit behind a desk all day). Others feature lounges where workers can relax and feel at home. At some, the offices are designed to encourage workers to think more creatively or playfully. Some of the ideas used in these offices overlap with some amazing home design ideas, while others are specific to a work environment. This makes sense, however, since offices can sometimes seem like a second home!

1 | Selgas Cano Architecture Office

2 | Google

3 | Inventionland Design Factory

4 | Pallotta Teamworks

5 | Dropbox

6 | Airbnb

7 | Facebook

8 | Nokia

9 | Urban Outfitters

10 | Lego

11 | Zynga

12 | White Mountain Office

How I wish I can get to work in any of these offices…I’m sure you have the same thought too or perhaps your office is also as cool as those shown above. If that is so, then you are a very fortunate and enjoying employee. Who doesn’t like at least a bit of ‘FUN’ in the office?

(Information and images in this post are from this source: http://www.architecturendesign.net/12-of-the-coolest-offices-in-the-world/)

Just back from Sammi’s concert and the coolest pasar malam in Genting!

It’s Saturday night, not a usual night as I am following my dad to Genting Highlands to watch concert by Sammi Cheng, the cantopop queen called as ‘Love Mi More World Tour 2011’. Last year around the same date, I watched her concert too, at the same venue as well, in the Arena of Stars. It seems that Resort World is inviting her for concert every year, and still the venue is flooded with people every year attending her brilliant concert.

She already had the popularity, the name of being the Heavenly Queen in singing industry originating from Hong Kong. Despite reaching age of around 40 already, she is still capable of stunning the entertainment world with new songs, films and concerts unlike the other Heavenly Queens of her time (Faye Wong, Kelly Chen, etc). She is still receiving awards even until these days for her best-selling albums. She is here in Malaysia again, and of course I will not miss the chance of watching her concert despite sitting very far from the stage.

She is my singing idol during my childhood years. I like her songs, especially those slow and romantic love songs by her over a decade ago. Her new songs are not that nice, but still rock the music world. The only thing imperfect on her is her body; she is way too thin with no nice body figure at all. She had the wealth, had the name, but just can’t have the right size. Anyway, she is still beautiful. Her rumours with Andy Hui never ends and there are many people shouting his name to her during the concert. She heard that, and makes no reply to it except by just smiling.

Her concert this time is stunning, a bit better than the one in previous year. Why? It is because she sang a lot of my favourite songs, perhaps favourites to many other audiences too. All these songs dated back more than a decade ago, when she sang it full of energy and emotion. However, for this time she seems to be lacking of energy during singing. Hence, we can’t really hear what she sings, but still can feel the melody as the songs go on. Maybe she is too tired for organizing concerts for two nights in a row.

Her dancing is very good. Can’t believe a woman of such age and with such a thin figure can create a very ‘high’ atmosphere by dancing! This is her power of stealing the whole night. She can still sing while dancing despite lacking of breath. And so, she even lied down and sitting on the stage after those energy-wasting tasks. She talked less this time, with more focus on singing as well as changing her outfits which are a bit too much and unnecessary. People don’t really pay attention to what she wears, we only focused on what would she sings next???! Luckily, her outfits this time turned out to be pretty normal.

The concert started around 8.20 pm, late for twenty minutes and ended around 10.30 pm, taking around two hours. People are shouting and shouting, for encore especially until I really can’t bare the noise. Anyway, the atmosphere is really good and exciting. Her final song is forever the one from the movie ‘Love on a Diet’ with Andy Lau entitled ‘Eternal Beauty’ which everyone hoped for. This is definitely a nice song, but for me, it’s not as nice as compared to some of her other songs. She must be wearing very high-heel shoes; she carefully walked down to the stage through a long series of steps every time after emerging from the top.

Before we went for her concert, me and my dad went to take a walk at the coolest pasar malam (night market) in Malaysia at the outdoor theme park held for a week (just now is the last night) where fireworks is displayed during the concert that does not distract much of the atmosphere in the venue. It is really cool having a pasar malam there in Genting. You won’t feel hot, and you can taste on local delicacies with low prices even in Genting, a city high above a mountain. This kind of event should remained to attract more visitors, or at least on just weekends that puts Malaysian lifestyle as part and parcel of vacation in Genting Highlands.

The visibility dropped to a very minimum level as mist overwhelmed the roads heading back down to the city of Kuala Lumpur. My dad had a hard time driving back home, so I have to stay awake to help him see what’s in front for a right direction. Time to check out the moon, stated to look larger than usual tonight as the distance of the moon to Earth is the closest in 20 years. However, there is nothing much different with the size of the moon seen, with just the light from it seems to be brighter. That’s all. End of the post…a good night at Genting eventhough it comes and goes very quick!