Safdie Architects have unveiled details of their proposed corporate headquarters for Surbana Jurong in Singapore. The scheme seeks to reflect the mission of Surbana Jurong (Singapore’s leading architecture, urban design, and infrastructure firm) of characterizing Singapore as the “Garden City.” Located on a previously undeveloped site, the campus will “integrate harmoniously with its natural landscape” while also offering over 740,000 square feet of space for the firm’s 4000 employees. The scheme marks the first initiative for the Safdie Surbana Jurong joint venture, which was established in 2017 to develop innovative and iconic projects in Asia-Pacific.
The scheme manifests as a series of treehouse-like pavilions united by a central pedestrian “street,” all shaped by a careful examination of, and respect for, the site’s existing trees and unique flora. The result is a distinctive network of offices embedded within surrounding parkland, with the glazed pedestrian street interweaving interior and exterior landscapes.
The campus’ series of pavilion-like structures are also linked by a series of open-air and enclosed courtyards, offering natural light and fresh air. Working in collaboration with Peter Walker and Partners Landscape Architects, the design team has shaped a unique, diverse palette of plant life for each courtyard, reflecting altering functions. The north courtyard, quieter in nature with lush planting, offers a shared meeting center with intimate spaces. Meanwhile, the south courtyard offers a livelier counterpoint, with a café spread across a hardscaped piazza punctuated with formal planting.
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We are honored to be working with Surbana Jurong to realize the company’s new home set among the tropical treetops of Singapore. It is our hope that the new campus will come to embody much more than just a place to work. We have designed the buildings with both the Surbana Jurong community and the community-at-large in mind, creating uplifting spaces that maximize the potential for shared moments of engagement and creativity facilitated by the tranquility of the site’s natural setting.
-Moshe Safdie
Apart from its office facilities, Safdie’s scheme also includes a range of leisure amenities for use by employees and the public alike. Chief among this is a 1200-seat multipurpose hall, which will take advantage of the natural landscape with a windowed backdrop looking onto the garden.
Embodying Surbana Jurong’s commitment to new technologies, the scheme has been designed to take full advantage of the environmentally-friendly transport options soon to be made available through a future JW2 MRT station and M(obility) Deck. Office structures have been designed to maximize natural light and minimize solar heat gain through light shelves, while external screens and fritting will mitigate heat gain while maintaining transparency.
Design Architect: Safdie Architects
Lead Designer: Moshe Safdie
Principals: David Brooks, Jeffrey Huggins, Charu Kokate
Project Team: Howard Bloom, Tunch Gungor, Zhuang Guo, Seunghyun Kim, Lewina Lee, Reihaneh Ramezany M., Sarah Rinehart, Jeremy Schwartz, Lusha Wainford
Building Systems & Engineering: Surbana Jurong Private Limited
Consultants: PWP Landscape Architecture; Nipek; KTP; Arup Facades; Acviron Acoustics
AD Classics: Habitat 67 / Safdie Architects
Habitat 67, designed by the Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie as the Canadian Pavilion for the World Exposition of 1967, was originally intended as an experimental solution for high-quality housing in dense urban environments. Safdie explored the possibilities of prefabricated modular units to reduce housing costs and allow for a new housing typology that could integrate the qualities of a suburban home into an urban high-rise.
