Suntec City
A monumental fountain ringed by restaurants and cafes anchors a new civic space in a downtown Singapore district once lacking in street life.
Six million square foot development of office, retail, entertainment, convention, exhibition, and civic space.
Learning from their prior experiences in designing large, urban projects abroad, Tsao & McKown’s first priority was to immerse themselves in the local culture, and to forge close collaborations with the local authorities, the client, and the local architect.
Recognizing a dire need for public spaces in Singapore, Tsao & McKown initiated a dialogue between the government authorities and the client that resulted in the largest development of public spaces by private developers in Singapore’s history.
As the site was largely separated from existing city fabric by limited access highways, a new neighborhood with its own focus needed to be formed. Tsao & McKown chose to draw on the mandala (which has been used since ancient times in the planning of South Asian towns, temples and houses). The resulting arrangement of buildings and paths powerfully asserts preeminence of place, as the buildings themselves clearly act in support roles to the public spaces they form.
The popularity of this place is evident not only by its great commercial success but also by the proliferation of images of the fountain: the fountain plaza and the complex as a whole on postage stamps, on the covers of guide books, and as the setting for countless public events, including Singapore’s equivalent to New York’s New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square.
-
Physical ContextGoogle Earth View
-
Physical ContextSite
-
StatisticsSingapore
Background Notes
U.S. Department of State
Singapore is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. The annual population growth rate for 2011 was 2.1%, including resident foreigners. Singapore has a varied linguistic, cultural, and religious heritage. Malay is the national language, but Chinese, English, and Tamil also are official languages. English is the language of administration and also is widely used in the professions, businesses, and schools.
Population Trends 2011
Department of Statistics, Singapore
Population size, structure and changes have important implications for production, investment and consumption activities as well as community development, social networks and kinship ties. A good understanding of demographic forces and emerging trends is useful for policy makers, planners, businesses and the academia.
The Singapore Department of Statistics compiles, monitors and analyses Singapore‟s population statistics and indicators in detail. A report on Population Trends that puts together different aspects of demographic statistics is released annually. Population Trends 2011 is the seventh edition of the annual series.
The report comprises five chapters, namely, “Population‟, “Households and Housing‟, “Family Formation and Dissolution‟, “Fertility‟ and “Mortality‟.
-
HistorySouth East Asia
A Short History of South East Asia
Stanford University
South East Asia is taken in this history to include the countries of the Asian mainland south of China, from Burma in the west to Vietnam in the east and the islands from Sumatra in the west to the Philippines and New Guinea in the east.
It does not include Taiwan (Formosa), whose history seems to be more naturally part of that of China. But it does include Hong Kong and Macao, the British and Portuguese possessions on the south China coast, as their history is bound up with that of South East Asia rather than with that of China.
With so many different countries being covered, the history of any one country is necessarily fragmented. The following index makes it possible to read the history of each, if so desired, more or less consecutively.
-
HistoryMandala
Mandala and its Significance in Magindanao Muslim Society
Mark S. Williams
Starting as an Indic symbol for meditation, musings about the universe, and striving towards the end of suffering leading to Nirvana, the mandala has actually had a much more practical legacy for political leadership in which one central ‘divine king’ is flanked and protected in tributary relationship by a ‘circle of kings’ that owes the one ‘man of prowess’ their allegiance and devotion in some binding fashion. Used in Hindu India, Buddhist Southeast Asia, and also in the Islamic Malay regions, mandalic polities have seemingly defied the odds against other systems of governance that would vie against them for legitimacy and acceptability among the subject peoples under their spheres of influence.
Mandala Form Cities – Challenges to Asian Urbanization in the 21st Century
Edited by: Ashok K. Dutt, Allen G. Noble, G. Venugopal and S. Subbiah
The city in South Asia stretches back to pre-historic time. In some of these urban center efforts of early planning can still be discerned. They follow a mandala form and are thus related in some fashion to the Hindu (or less often Buddhist) religion (Noble 1998, 24)
Japanese Mandalas: Representations of Sacred Geography
Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis
Anyone looking closely at the Diamond World mandala will probably be struck by its visual similarity to the city plan of Chang’an in the Tang period.
Mandalas and Yantras in the Hindu Traditions
Gudrun Bühnemann
Mandala patterns have had other far-reaching influences. They have, for example, had an impact on ancient town-planning.
-
HistoryFeng Shui
Geomancy: Ancient Chinese Urban Planning Principles Inspire Contemporary Cities
Yong Ma
This creative project introduces the general knowledge about Fengshui and focus on researching the ten Fengshui principles related to ancient Chinese urban planning, in order to find the inspiration for contemporary sustainable issues in urban planning.
The Zangshu, or Book of Burial
Guo Pu
Fengshui Theory in Urban Landscape Planning
Sun-Kee Hong, In-Ju Song, Jianguo Wu
In this paper, we discuss recent concepts and methods of landscape ecology and urban planning from the viewpoint of Fengshui, the traditional land use patterns in Seoul, whose application has so far been restricted only to traditional land evaluation. We conclude that, to maintain the sustainability of the urban landscape, it is necessary to develop a new urban planning framework for the region that is based on the integration between landscape ecology principles with the traditional concepts of Fengshui.
-
ArticleArchitectural Record: Making Extra-Large The Right Fit
-
ArticleThe Straits Times: Let's Party Like It's 1999
-
ArticleA City in a Hand by Jenny Lam
-
PublicationFeng Shui Bao
-
Public InteractionCommercial: HTC EVO 3D Projection Mapping
-
FilmScene at Suntec City from the film "KRRISH"
-
Related WorkRaffles City by I.M. Pei
Raffles City was undertaken in a climate of nation building shortly after Singapore’s independence. Upon completion in 1986, the 370,000 m2 project was the largest private commercial development in Southeast Asia with the tallest building in the Far East, the world’s tallest hotel, and the largest continuous concrete pour ever attempted.
-
Related WorkMarina Square by John Portman & Associates
Comprised of three hotels (The Oriental, Marina Mandarin, Pan Pacific),an office building, and a large retail mall, Marina Square was designedto stimulate the economic growth of an undeveloped landfill site on the Singapore Harbour waterfront by creating a people-oriented destination.
-
Government Authorities
Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore
Singapore Tourism Board
-
Current Stakeholders
ARA Real Estate Fund Management Company
ARA currently manages REITs listed in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia with a diversified portfolio spanning the retail, office, industrial/office and logistics sectors; private funds investing in real estate and provides real estate management services, including property management services and convention & exhibition services; and corporate finance advisory services.
Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT)
Listed on 9 December 2004 on Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Limited (the “SGX-ST”), Suntec Real Estate Investment Trust (“Suntec REIT”) is the first composite REIT in Singapore, owning income-producing real estate that is primarily used for retail and/or office purposes.
As at 31 December 2011, Suntec REIT’s portfolio comprises office and retail properties in Suntec City, Park Mall, Chijmes, a one-third interest in One Raffles Quay and a one-third interest in Marina Bay Financial Centre Towers 1 and 2 and the Marina Bay Link Mall, all strategically located in the growth corridors of Marina Bay and the Civic and Cultural District within Singapore’s central business district. Suntec REIT also owns a 60.8% interest in Suntec Singapore International Convention & Exhibition Centre.
-
Consultants
DP Architects
Architect of Record
Weiskopf & Pickworth
Structural Concept (Convention Center)
Maunsell Consultants
Civil/Structural
Parsons Brinckeroff
Mechanical/Electrical
Hyundai Construction
Contractor
Ng Chun Man & Associates
Project Advisor
R.A. Heintges Architects
Cladding
Permasteelisa Group
Envelope
Arnold Associates
Landscape Concept
Clouston Associates
Landscape
Tracy Turner Design
Signage
DCG Design and Meridian Projects
Fountain
-
T&M Team
Calvin Tsao
Zack McKown
Andreas Atela
Lynne Bright
I-Ni Chen
Frank Czyzewski
Barbara Farina
Kaz Iwamoto
Charles Kessler
Trish McKinney
Ruth Miller
Stephen Rouse
Raymond Shick
Gerald Szeto
Neil Troiano
Elvis Wells
Tom Woo
Admin
Wendy Lim
Lily Low
Dieter Metzger
Robert Morris