bjarke ingels and carlo ratti's biophilic 'capitaspring' skyscraper completes in singapore

‘CapitaSpring’ biophilic skyscraper completes in Singapore

Following four years of construction, the ‘CapitaSpring’ biophilic skyscraper by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) is now complete. Located in the heart of Singapore’s financial district, the newly unveiled high-rise reaches 280 meters in height and is currently one of the tallest buildings in the city. The tower will enhance the city’s skyline while maintaining its pioneering vertical urbanity with a diverse neighborhood of restaurants, office space, a serviced residence, and sky gardens from the ground all the way up to the 51st floor.

all images courtesy of Finbarr Fallon

a seamless transition between the garden and the city

The biophilic CapitaSpring mixed-use tower is officially completed for CapitaLand Development (CLD), CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, and Mitsubishi Estate. Up until now, over 99% of the office and retail space in the 93,000 sqft skyscraper is occupied, featuring a dynamic interplay of orthogonal lines, lush greenery, and contrasting textures. At several points, the vertical elements that make up the building’s exterior are pulled apart to provide views of the green oases that emanate from the base, core, and roof of the sky gardens. Underscoring Singapore’s reputation as a garden city, the tower houses more than 80,000 plants with a green space ratio of more than 1:1.4. 

‘As someone with Singaporean heritage, I have been honored and humbled by the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing evolution of architecture in Singapore as a distinct blending between the contemporary and the tropical. In our design, this manifests as a seamless transition between the garden and the city, articulated in the facades and a series of lush spiraling gardens connecting between various programs and filled with amenities representing a spectrum of use.’ shares Brian Yang, Partner in Charge, Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). 

‘Our design seeks to continue Singapore’s pioneering vertical urbanism with the 280m tall diverse neighborhood of places to work, live and play inside as well as outside. Due to the unique character of Singapore’s urbanism – both extremely dense and green – we decided to make the design a vertical exploration of tropical urbanism. At grade, the street is closed to form a new linear park and public plaza. A vertical park in the middle of the tower forms a spiraling promenade ascending among tropical tree trunks and canopies. On top, an urban forest feeds all the restaurants and cafes in the building and allows visitors to enjoy the lushness of the summit. Capitaspring is like a vision of a future in which city and countryside, culture and nature can coexist, and urban landscapes can expand unrestricted into the vertical dimension.’ notes Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG (find more here). 

variety of amenities, sweeping views, and public spaces 

The serviced residence occupies the first eight floors of the tower and offers a variety of amenities like a swimming pool, jacuzzi, jogging track, gym, social kitchen, residents’ lounge, and barbecue pits. The top 29 floors of the tower are reserved for premium office spaces with sweeping views of the Singapore River and Marina Bay.

‘As CapitaSpring is open to the public today, I am proud of how we enhanced the public spaces across the building, creating the best experience for all users, leveraging both technology and unprecedented integration with natural elements.’ mentions Carlo Ratti, Founding Partner, CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and Director (find more here). 

the green oasis 

At the center of the building, between the hardscapes of the offices and apartments, emerges the ‘Green Oasis’, a 35m open-air garden for work, casual strolls, leisure, fitness, and gatherings. The Green Oasis combines the smoothness of contemporary architecture with the pervasive tropical nature of the area by seamlessly integrating nature vertically into the architecture, satisfying the spatial requirements of the location, and providing tenants and residents with abundant access to green spaces.

The Green Oasis’ vertical softscape resembles the tropical rainforest’s hierarchical plant structure; the plants’ hierarchical leaf growth is directly proportionate to the amount of light that is available within the various layers of vegetation. The ‘rainforest floor’ is home to shade-tolerant plants with big leaves that require the least amount of direct sunlight. As one moves up into the canopy layer, which is referred to as the ‘roof’ of the rainforest, trees become more pronounced.

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project info: 

name: CapitaSpring
architects: Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA) 
collaborators: RSP Architects Planners & Engineers (Pte) Ltd, ARUP Singapore Pte Ltd , Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner (S.E.Asia) Pte Ltd, Arcadis Singapore Pte Ltd, COEN Design International Pte Ltd, Takenouchi Webb Pte Ltd, Nipek Pte Ltd, Asylum Creative Ptd Ltd, Jacobs International Consultants Pte Ltd, Ignesis Consultants Pte Ltd, PH Consulting Pte Ltd, TSM Consultancy Pte Ltd, Dragages Singapore Pte Ltd, Meinhardt Singapore Pte Ltd, Squire Mech Pte Ltd.
client: CapitaLand Development, CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust, and Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. 
location: Singapore
size: 93,000 sqm

Carlo Ratti Associatti team:

team: Carlo Ratti, Monika Löve, Antonio Atripaldi, Gary di Silvio, Gianluca Zimbardi, Saverio Panata, Alberto Bottero, Chiara de Grandi, Giovanni de Niederhausern, Andrea Giordano, Damiano Gui, Mariachiara Mondini, Andrea Pedrina, Andrea Riva 
consultants: dotdotdot – Alessandro Masserdotti, Fabrizio Pignoloni, Gabriele Gambotto

Bjarke Ingels Group team: 

partners-in-charge: Bjarke Ingels, Brian Yang
project leader: Gorka Calzada Medina, Martino Hutz, Song He
project manager: Eric Li, Günther Weber
BIG sustainability: Tore Banke, Anders Holden Deleuran
BIG landscape: Dina Brændstrup, Kirsty Badenoch, Ulla Hornsyld
team: Aime Desert, Aleksander Wadas, Aleksandra Domian, Alessandro Zanini, Anke Kristina Schramm, Augusto Lavieri Zamperlini, Dalma Ujvari, David Schwarzman, David Vega y Rojo, Davide Tarditi, Dimitrie Grigorescu, Dominika Trybe, Elise Cauchard, Eriko Maekawa, Espen Vik, Ewa Szajda, Federica Locati, Filippo Lorenzi, Francisco Castellanos, Frederik Skou Jensen, Gabrielé Ubareviciute, Guoyu Liu, Helen Chen, Jacek Baczkowski, Jakub Wlodarczyk, Jonas Käckenmester, Julieta Muzzillo, Luca Pileri, Luis Torsten Wagenführer, Lukas Kerner, Malgorzata Mutkowska, Maria Teresa Fernandez Rojo, Matilde Tavanti, Moa Carlsson, Nataly Timotheou, Niu Jing, Orges Guga, Patrycja Lyszczyk, Pedro Savio jobim Pinheiro, Philip Rufus Knauf, Praewa Samachai, Qamelliah Nassir, Rahul Girish, Ramon Julio Muros Cortes, Rebecca Carrai, Roberto Fabbri, Samuel Rubio Sanchez, Shuhei Kamiya, Sofiia Rokmaniko, Sorcha Burke, Steen Kortbæk Svendsen, Szymon Kolecki, Teodor Fratila Cristian, Viktoria Millentrup, Vilius Linge, Vinish Sethi, Weijia Lu, Xin Su, Xinying Zhang, Zari van de Merwe, Zhen Tong