BIG and Carlo Ratti Associati, in collaboration with local firm RSP Architects Planners & Engineers, have announced the completion of their new CapitaSpring skyscraper in Singapore’s Central Business District.

After the project broke ground in February of 2018, the completed biophilic tower stands tall at 51-stories. The high-rise includes interior sky garden spaces, a rooftop park, Citadines serviced residences, multiple restaurants, premium office spaces, and a hawker center (food court center) that nods to Singapore’s iconic food culture. The project was commissioned by local developer CapitaLand in an effort to "set a new benchmark for the office of the future" in advance of the ultragreen city's 2030 Sustainability Master Plan. 

"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," shared Brian Yang, Partner in Charge for BIG. "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."  

Users are welcomed inside the Market Street adjacent podium via landscaped gardens which lead to the City Room, a 59-foot high open space that separates residential tenants and office workers into two different lobbies with space for shopping in between. The recreated historic hawker center occupies the second and third floors, with 56 food stalls that BIG says solidify the tower as the "beating heart of the city’s culinary experience, and the role it plays in maintaining local culture and community."

The next eight floors are reserved for the residential program. This is followed by a “Green Oasis” core comprising four connected levels of open-air gardens offering workers and residents an invigorating space with carefully selected plants staged to mimic the hierarchy of tropical rainforests. The proceeding 29 floors are reserved for office functions. Finally, at the building’s crown, a rooftop garden with the city’s tallest urban farm completes the biophilic program with the operational capacity to serve the restaurants their desired seasonal greens.

"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," BIG’s founder Bjarke Ingels said finally. "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. Capitaspring is 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."