“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’.” -Moshe Safdie
Jewel Changi Airport 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 and 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 is designed as a new central connector between the existing airport terminals at Singapore Changi Airport.
At its core is the Forest Valley, a terraced garden attraction that offers many spatial and interactive experiences for visitors. The Forest Valley also includes walking trails, cascading waterfalls, and quiet seating areas. Surrounding the gardens is a multi-level retail marketplace on five levels, which features access to the garden via a series of vertical canyons.
The Rain Vortex will be the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, transforming into a light and sound show in the evening.
At the apex of Jewel’s glass roof is an oculus that showers water down to the center of the building. The Rain Vortex will be the world’s tallest indoor waterfall, transforming into a light and sound show in the evening.
During the region’s frequent and powerful thunderstorms, recirculated, natural rainwater will flow at more than 10,000 gallons per minute, which helps provide cooling and airflow in the landscape environment, collecting significant rainwater to be re-used in the building.
Jewel represents an innovation in the world of lifestyle/retail design, with a one-of-a-kind relationship between garden and marketplace.
In addition, nowhere in the world has a building been constructed that integrates the public realm with an airport facility so closely. The building extends Changi Airport’s principal function as a transit hub, to a public gathering space for Singaporeans and international travelers, establishing a new model for airports as discrete destinations for shopping, entertainment, and social activity.
On the 5th level is the Canopy Park, which includes 14,000 square meters of attractions integrated within the garden spaces. These include net structures suspended within the trees, a suspended catenary glass-bottom bridge walk, a planted hedge maze and mirror maze, and feature installations completed in collaboration with internationally acclaimed artists. There is also a topiary walk and other horticultural displays. On the north side of the park is an event plaza space big enough to serve 1,000 people.
Conceived to serve the people of Singapore and travelers equally, the building is directly connected to the Changi Bus Terminal and the airport’s Terminal 1. It is also accessible from Terminals 2 and 3 via pedestrian bridges, and the interterminal train crosses through the gardens, giving visitors with limited time a glimpse into the Forest Valley.
Jewel is slated to receive Singapore’s GreenMark Platinum status. The building’s efficient displacement ventilation system regulates the thermal comfort for occupants as well as the vast array of interior planting within.
Plans
Facts & Credits
Project title Jewel Changi Airport
Type Office & Mixed Use Transportation
Architecture Safdie Architects
Location Singapore, Asia
Year 2018
Clients Jewel Changi Airport Devt Pte. Ltd.
Cost SGD $1.7 Billion
Size 134,000 sq m
Collaborators
Executive Architect RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd
Landscape Design PWP Landscape Architecture
Executive Landscape Architect ICN International Singapore
Structure RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd
Facades Buro Happold Engineering
ESD Atelier Ten
MEP Mott MacDonald
Signage/Wayfinding Pentagram and Entro Communications
Retail Interiors Benoy
Water Feature WET Design
Lighting Design Lighting Planners Associates
Awards
MIPIM Asia, Best Futura Project 2016, Silver Award
21st Century MAPIC Award, Best Futura Shopping Centre, 2016
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