Adding to Hadid in Singapore

The idea that design coding is the exclusive product of the American New Urbanists is a myth propagated by people who fear that coding is a synonym for neo-classical architecture reminiscent of the antebellum South. Coding can take many forms, as the project pictured here shows. Lawrence Barth and S333 Architecture+Urbanism have completed urban design guidelines for the central districts of one-north, Singapore, an urban innovation park originally master planned by Zaha Hadid Architects in 2002. Her plan reverses the isolation and sprawl of traditional technology parks, offering instead what the designers call 'a dense, multi-use urban fabric set amongst a lush tropical forest and a network of courtyards, parks, and congenial heritage environments'. The aim of the master developer and client, JTC Corporation, has been to make practicable the implementation of an environment that would encourage 'the meeting of talented minds' in ICT, new media, and bio-technology. It brings to mind the comment by the British developer Stuart Lipton, who once described his vision for a business park as 'PhDs rolling in the grass'.

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Barth, who had worked on the urban strategy behind Hadid's plan, was invited in 2004 to suggest talented young architects with experience who could bring forward the principles of the Hadid plan, developing and refining the guidelines to respond to changing conditions in Singapore. The 30ha at the heart of the 200ha one-north plan contain the project's primary concentration of ICT and media industries, and include the multi-use towers designed by Kisho Kurokawa. S333's have an ongoing collaboration with Barth via the housing and urbanism programme of the Architectural Association in London, where they jointly pursue research into innovation environments and urban intensification. The primary aim of the team's collaboration has been to give strategic definition to the pocket parks, terraces and gardens that will safeguard the urban porosity sought in the one-north plan, while responding to commercial demands in shaping a new urban morphology. So the graceful, undulating roofscape that has been a hallmark of the emerging plan has become a defensible planning tool under Singapore's strict controls over allowable floor area per parcel, the roofscape helps define a building envelope that frames the pursuit of that urban porosity.

JTC remain committed to the formal elegance of the Zaha Hadid plan; the challenge was to help them develop the architectural and urban guidelines that would enable them to negotiate effectively with private developers to achieve that vision. The report has been accepted by JTC, who are currently moving ahead with the tender of a key parcel designated for housing, retail, and the adaptive re-use of heritage buildings. P.F.

COPYRIGHT 2005 EMAP Architecture
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