The integration of architecture and nature is the main feature of a 280-meter (918-foot) tower in Singapore designed by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group and CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati and scheduled for completion in 2021.

cover image: the ‘Green Oasis’, an open air garden located at the core of the tower.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group

In the case of this high-rise mixed-use building, located on Market Street in the heart of the city’s financial district, the outer skin is composed of a ensemble of thin, vertical steel and glass elements though which a luxuriant vegetation emerges from a series of tropical oasis located just underneath the skyscraper facades.

The 93,000 square meter (1,000,000 square foot) tower, whose design has been selected after an architectural competition, will contain offices, apartments, and retail stores.

“BIG’s design seeks to continue Singapore’s pioneering vertical urbanism with the 280m tall diverse community of places to work, live and play inside as well as outside. At multiple elevations, the facade peels open to reveal urban oases for its users and the surrounding city – animating the elegant smoothness of modern architecture with the ubiquitous tropical nature.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner of BIG, says.

At the street level, a network of pathways across a park will lead to the City Room, an 19-meter (62-feet) high open-space that will accommodate spaces for live performances, events and temporary art installations. The “Green Oasis” – an open-air vertical garden for strolls, exercise and events – will be located at the core of the tower, between the office and the residential sections. A spiraling “botanical walkway” will connect the various levels of the oasis, at the same time providing multiple viewpoints on both the internal garden and the urban landscape outside.

Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group & VMW

View from the Church street. Image by BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group & VMW

Images courtesy of BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group