Design In Print 2.2 Retail

RETAIL ISSUE

MICA (P) 150/10/2010

www.dpa.com.sg

VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2 2011 SINGAPORE

Volume 2 Number 2, 2011, Singapore

CONTENTS The latest happenings in DP

DP BluePrint 2011 New Logo Design for Dover Park Hospice Friends of the Museums at RWS

Letter from our Guest Editor Dear Readers,

Short takes on new & notable projects

The latest issue of Design in Print puts the focus on our retail portfolio.

From early groundbreaking projects like Golden Mile Complex and People’s Park Complex to recent super malls The Dubai Mall and the still-in-progress Doha Festival City, DP Architects’ accomplishments in various mall concepts have positioned the firm as a retail design leader in Asia.

Singapore’s sophisticated retail market guarantees an abundance of opportunities to expand our portfolio. The retail sector alone contributed $26 billion in operating receipts in 2009. The need to constantly reinvent to keep up with changing consumer expectations and attract the tourist dollar means that malls transform at a rapid rate. Take Paragon – the mall has undergone three makeovers in 1999, 2003 and 2009 since it opened.

In the following pages, we share the thoughts behind what is perhaps our most significant retail contribution in Singapore – the transformation of Orchard Road.

We explain our role as master-planner and designer of major malls along this famed shopping strip and the process of turning the street into a premier retail and lifestyle destination. We also put the spotlight on Central Park, an awardwinning retail development in neighbouring Jakarta, a city as deeply entrenched in mall culture as Singapore.

Response from partners and peers to the past two issues has been encouraging; we look forward to putting together better, more exciting issues.

Featured projects

The Orchard Road Experience: - Wisma Atria - Paragon - Mandarin Gallery - Grand Park Orchard - The Heeren - Orchard Central - TripleOne Somerset Central Park: A City Within a City

Awards & events

Asia Pacific Property Awards BCA Awards 2011 BIM Skills Competition BCI Asia Top 10 Architects Liveable Cities Symposium Asian Green Construction Summit 2011 SUTD Admission Briefing

DP personalities

Interview with Mike Lim & Fu Tingting

Graphics

Writing

Editorial

Ti Lian Seng, Director, DP Architects Pte Ltd

01 Novena Specialist Center & Oasia Hotel 02 SIT Campuses: Ngee Ann, Republic & Singapore Polytechnics 03 Infinite Studios 04 NTUC Income Centre 05 NUH Administrative Block 06 Shanghai Guoson Centre 07 Doha Festival City

Celebration of past projects

Golden Mile Complex, 1970-1974 Chan Hui Min Nartano Lim Collin Anderson

Kyle Fulton Toh Bee Ping

DESIGN IN PRINT TEAM

Loh Yew Cheng Lek Noonchoo Fu Tingting Additional contributors: Gerard James, Tricia Koh, Edwin Yong

Cover photo: Mandarin Gallery

| The latest happenings in DP

Transforming for our Future Towards the Tipping Point

Held at Rock Auditorium on 4 April, the event highlights include founder Koh Seow Chuan’s opening address on the firm’s founding philosophy, CEO Francis Lee’s speech on moving

DP Architects designs new logo for

from good to great and key departments’ presentations of their goals for 2011. The event concluded with a rousing speech by Director Ti Lian Seng.

mixed development

BLUEPRINT 2011

DOVER PARK HOSPICE

On May 26, Dover Park Hospice held a ceremony to commemorate a fresh start for the non-profit organisation. The hospice announced their new patron Dr Tony Tan and unveiled expansion plans, a new logo and tagline – all designed by DP Architects. The new logo features an illustrative dove emerging from a circular brushstroke symbolising the journey of life, the ascension beyond and the importance of individual experience.

Echoing this sentiment, the new tagline “Every Moment Matters” stresses the importance of all life’s events, both grand and mundane. DP Architects’ relationship with the hospice began six years ago and we are proud to redesign the corporate branding and undertake the renovation.

| Short takes on new & notable projects

01 RESORTS WORLD SENTOSA Welcomes Friends of the Museums

DP Architects brought members of Friends of the Museums on an art and architecture tour at Resorts World Sentosa on 10 March.

The tour showcased the works of notable artists like Salvador Dali, Fernando Botero and Dale Chihuly on display around the resort.

The group was also apprised of Resorts World’s design concepts and architectural elements.

Novena Specialist Center & Oasia Hotel Singapore

The 25-storey development comprises the eighteen-storey Oasia Hotel above a seven-storey podium housing the Novena Specialist Center and F&B outlets. The architectural concept injects greenery by means of a roof garden, sky terrace, landscaped decks and pockets of outdoor green. This introduces a holistic and restful ambience, complementing the purposes of the hotel and medical centre.

Assimilating this new development with the existing medical, retail and public transportation facilities, Novena Specialist Center is connected via a link bridge to Novena Medical Center, which in turn is connected to Tan Tock Seng Hospital. The development also connects to Square 2 shopping mall, which is directly linked to the Novena MRT station.

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Short takes on new & notable projects

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02

Marina Bay Floating Entertainment Pod Singapore

The Marina Bay Floating Entertainment Pod is the first and only floating lifestyle destination in Singapore and is set to become one of the focal points along the beautiful stretch of the waterfront promenade. The first of its kind in this industry, this iconic marine structure is a hybrid between a building and a marine vessel. Patrons will get to enjoy close proximity to the water and stunning 360 degree views of Marina Bay. Nestled within the Collyer Quay lifestyle and entertainment hub comprising mainly historical buildings, the floating pod was designed with a sleek and modern look to distinguish from its context. The perfect circular form also expresses a timeless visual meaning and stands out as a strong geometrical structure on the waterfront landscape.

Measuring at a generous 6m tall with a spacious 23.5m diameter, the floating pod allows breathtaking views of Marina Bay. The first storey holds about 260 persons and the roof deck another 150. The design of the façade envelope starts from solid opaque panels at the main entrance and gradually evolves into clear glass at the dining area to take advantage of the fabulous Marina views. The outer layer of the façade is made of laminated glass, giving the pod good acoustics capability. At the exterior of the façade frames, LED light strips are integrated in between the glass panels. These light strips are individually controllable, allowing lighting customisation to suit different event and festive requirements.

The floating entertainment pod will be completed by end of this year.

mixed development

04 Infinite Studios Singapore

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Located along Portsdown Road and the artist enclave at Wessex Estate, Infinite Studios is slated to be the seed project of Mediapolis and the first of its kind in Singapore.

It comprises a ten-storey office block, a single-storey annex block, two soundstages (1,670 sq m and 930 sq m) with an adjoining block of production offices. The development is nestled in an extensive green area which includes the ‘buffer park’. The theme for the development as a whole reflects a campus atmosphere filled with activity nodes and interstitial spaces to encourage communal interaction between users.

NTUC Income Centre Singapore

The façade transformation of the NTUC Income Centre is part of the insurer’s branding exercise to present a new corporate image that is professional, energetic and contemporary. The former façade was replaced by a glass curtain wall to enhance the visual connectivity between the inside and outside. A second layer of low iron glass skin with frit pattern was added to accentuate the transformation. The result is a dynamic façade that is corporate during the day and youthful at night. The additional glass skin forms an air gap to reduce daytime solar heat gain. At night, LED fittings illuminate the façade and add vibrancy to the architecture. The building’s verticality is enhanced by an overhead roof canopy that conceals M&E equipment and turns the roof into an outdoor deck with panoramic views of Orchard Road and the CBD.

office

medical

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NUH Administrative Block Singapore

Located beside Kent Ridge’s lush greenery, the new block consists of an entrance floor with common facilities, four carpark floors, eight office floors and a rooftop garden with a sports hall. The building’s design brings the external greenery into the internal spaces.

Upon entering the landscaped entrance, a naturallylit internal courtyard comes into view. A green wall cascades down the entire air-well, providing visual respite for staff from their office floors. An internal courtyard staircase with hanging planters connects every floor, encouraging inter-floor circulation. The rooftop garden promotes interaction and increases the building’s green plot ratio. The glass walls of the new auditorium offer a view of the landscaped entrance.

The building connects to the Kent Ridge Wing by way of an iconic linkway bridge.

China

Qatar

mixed development

Immediately adjacent to Changfeng Park, one of Shanghai’s largest city parks, Guoson Centre aims to re-create the lush environs within its plot. The development integrates green technology and environmental features including rain collection systems and the use of environment-friendly building materials. The Guoson Mall, spanning the entire eastern length of the site, offers a unique experience of “shopping in the park” with its water features, lush foliage and warm timber tones.

Doha Festival City

Shanghai Guoson Centre is one of the key commercial projects in the Changfeng area of Shanghai’s Putuo district.

Comprising a retail mall, four office towers, a hotel, serviced apartments and two SoHo (Small office, Home office) blocks, the development is an ideal live, work and play destination.

mixed development

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Shanghai Guoson Centre

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Doha Festival City is poised to become the new super retail and entertainment hub of the State of Qatar. The 433,847 sq m complex boasts a retail section with the best-in-class international, regional and local brands, an entertainment and theme park, hospitality and conference facilities, and auto showrooms.

The interior design is inspired by natural elements: wind, water, wood and earth. The design concept brings the various ambiences of Mother Nature into a mall environment and reinterprets the elements in novel forms. Within the retail loops will be four distinct interior zones – Water Concourse, Garden Promenade, Rainforest Broadwalk and Fashion Galleria – offering different experiences for shoppers.

This mega complex is scheduled for completion in 2014. Along with World Cup 2022, this development is expected to spike the economic development of Qatar and its neighbours.

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Featured projects

THE

ORCHARD ROAD EXPERIENCE

INTERNATIONAL BUILDING A&A YEAR: 1983

By Collin Anderson

DP ARCHITECTS HAS REDEFINED THE FACE OF SINGAPORE’S MOST CELEBRATED SHOPPING STREET BY REINVENTING PEDESTRIAN ENGAGEMENT WITH ARCHITECTURE Shopping space is arguably the most public of spaces. It serves as a stage for the largest range of human activity, and performs as a point of convergence for social and cultural exchange.

In Singapore, the shopping centre today is a site where visitors congregate, eat, drink and become absorbed in an environment of unbounded recreational forms. DP Architects has played a critical role in developing this retail typology, a form which in many ways frames Singapore’s contemporary urban experience.

DP Architects has managed major retail projects along Orchard Road, transforming Singapore’s most popular urban space.

Singapore’s Orchard Road has come to stand alongside Tokyo’s Omotesando, Paris’ Champs Élysées and New York’s Fifth Avenue as a shopping district of world renown. But the architectonics and spatial history of Orchard Road is distinctive and demands a unique discussion in the history of retail space.

The roles of architecture and urbanism serve as transformative readings of this history. Perhaps most notably, unique circulation networks have

played a primary role in shaping Orchard Road’s ongoing transition at the urban scale. Specifically, nodal development about MRT stations and bus lines cater to the ceaseless ebb and flow of crowds; these nodes serve as arteries of activity.

The retail space of Orchard Road has performed as an urban centre of gravity about which more extensive development patterns – which include housing, schooling and commercial centres – have been configured.

With all this in mind, the architecture and planning of Orchard Road as a retail hub must accommodate change; it must form a dynamic foundation for the confluence of individual, social and economic transformation. Singapore Tourism Board (STB) and Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) programmes have been initiated to directly address and engage such dynamism. DP Architects was the lead consultant in the development of a schematic outline and master plan that has guided this transformation through the past decade. This plan continues to shape Orchard Road today.

ROYAL PLAZA ON SCOTTS A&A YEAR: 2007 | AREA: 47,206 SQ M

DFS GALLERIA SCOTTSWALK

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R O A D

YEAR: 2003 | AREA: 47,270 SQ M

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LUCKY PLAZA A&A

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YEAR: 1995

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PARAGON

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YEAR: 1999, 2003, 2009 AREA: 93,500 SQ M

GRAND PARK ORCHARD YEAR: 2010 | AREA: 23,400 SQ M

THE HEEREN O

YEAR: 2010 | AREA: 1,024 SQ M

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C

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THE CENTREPOINT A&A A

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YEAR: 2006 | AREA: 7,900 SQ M

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WISMA ATRIA YEAR: 1986, 2004, 2011AREA: 41,300 SQ M

MANDARIN GALLERY YEAR: 2009 | AREA: 110,000 SQ M

TRIPLEONE SOMERSET YEAR: 2009 | AREA: 36,000 SQ M

ORCHARD CENTRAL YEAR: 2010 | AREA: 71,200 SQ M

FEATURED PROJECTS: Orchard Road appears vastly different than it did five years ago, marking a recent paradigm shift in its architectural production. Innovative forms have emerged as DP Architects has been challenged to think about retail space in new ways. Particular focus has been placed on the 2002 URA programme headlined ‘Verandah and Façade Articulation’, a policy encouraging the development of a diverse mix of building frontages, openness and setbacks in pedestrian malls along Orchard Road.

DP Architects has been particularly involved in the overhaul of Orchard Road’s mall frontages, stemming from Urban Redevelopment Authority efforts to enhance street dynamics.

To enhance dynamism in building envelope design and pedestrian engagement with retail spaces, DP Architects has paid careful attention to forming a unique identity for each project with which it has been involved; design solutions for Orchard Road have not been prescriptive.

The following projects will explore the extent to which each has been developed by means of a different conceptual practice.

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Featured projects

WISMA ATRIA The frame of Wisma Atria performs as a moment of transition. The three-dimensional grid that composes the façade expands from the interior. The storefront merges inside with outside by dismantling the face of the façade: it holds glass-enclosed spaces at times within it, while at other moments the frame sits empty. These strategies blur the line between the interior commercial space and the public space of the sidewalk.

This frame reworks sidewalk circulation and the surrounding urban context by encouraging sidewalk travellers to reposition their routes with reference to the grid. One does not experience the grid head-on, but always arrives at it from an angle, seeing it always in perspective; he uses specific focal points held within the grid – a store, a landing, an entrance – to reformulate his route. Each of these focal points creates an axis of circulation, and one can traverse this

A GRID DEVELOPS NEW AXES, REWORKING PEDESTRIAN VIEWS OF STOREFRONTS AND POINTS OF MALL ENTRY

By Colin Anderson

By Colin Anderson

grid by means of multiple paths, some at ground level and others arrived at by escalator. In all these ways, the addition to Wisma Atria develops a striking new relationship with the street.

NEW WISMA ATRIA 2011-

The next phase of Wisma Atria’s redevelopment will feature a dynamic new crystalline façade, shown here.

The continuing transformation of Orchard Road is in many ways driven by the competitive nature of its retail spaces. The rate of change is often swift, and the planning of Wisma Atria’s next enhancement is already underway. The prospective all-glass skin will wrap the interior shop volumes within a common dynamic envelope, opening up shop visibility even further.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF SHOPPING SPACE IS A BALANCING ACT BETWEEN LOCAL DIFFERENCE AND OVERALL UNITY

PARAGON

Retail space is composed of an infinite variety of products, activities and shops, each of which fights for visitors’ attention in often disparate ways. The architecture of shopping space looks to articulate all these differences while maintaining an overall coherence. Paragon is perhaps Orchard Road’s hallmark for this vital synthesis.

Paragon’s architectural harmony is developed through materiality and massing: shops are read as individual elements projected outward from a unifying base façade; each of these masses showcases a unique luxury brand. While distinction is achieved through personalized glazing details and features beyond, these storefronts

– Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Prada, Miu Miu, Tod’s – conform to a common proportional and architectural framework.

The architecture expresses clearly both local difference and overall unity.

This expression is aided by means of a primary entrance, a solid focal point that accentuates the retail spaces beyond.

The existing curved glazed entrance was enlarged with the implementation of a structural frame; the lightness of this frame stands in stark contrast to the retail massing, further emphasising the featured showcases. A strong hierarchy is developed: structure reads in opposition to surface, and the standalone access point invites visitors to a variety of stores within.

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Featured projects

MANDARIN GALLERY UTILIZING CURVATURE TO BLEND HORIZONTAL PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC WITH VERTICAL MOVEMENT

Undulating forms in architecture are often employed to evoke fluidity. The retrofitting of Mandarin Gallery in the Takashimaya-Paragon-Mandarin shopping triangle uses such forms to create continuity of retail space into street space. Its gentle glass curves can be described dually as a carving from Mandarin Gallery’s exterior and a bulging from the retail space within: one can sense the space of the street permeating that of the building.

The organic form of Mandarin Gallery’s 150 m-long façade mitigates the monumental presence of the Meritus Mandarin Hotel on Orchard Road.

Repetitive glass paneling and intricate connections segment the façade’s curves; they are inset with white light boxes, spandrel panels and dark vertical fins. This technique adapts the materiality of the building to the scale of the passerby. In many ways the curvilinear forms employed to revamp this site establish new connectivity between pedestrian activity and the architecture of retail space.

Façade segmentation enhances the synergy between storefront and passerby.

The façade takes advantage of site and busy foot traffic along Orchard Road and leading to the Somerset MRT station. The storefront blends the horizontal movement of pedestrian traffic with vertical movement by means of an escalator that links the sidewalk directly to upper levels of the mall. An elevated entrance punctures the skin at the second-level to promote this connectivity. Sited between two street corners, the curves of the Mandarin Gallery’s façade culminate and project outwards at both corners for extended presence.

The Mandarin Gallery is situated at the convergence of Orchard Road and Somerset MRT station foot traffic streams. The faรงade retrofitting takes advantage of this setting with a deep first-storey setback and extended overhead canopy to integrate sidewalk with shopping space.

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Featured projects

GRAND PARK ORCHARD The success of a retail space is often dependent upon a site’s branding. But when every client hopes his project will become a unique icon for Orchard Road, how might a building stand out against the crowd? Achieving the delicate balance between retaining Orchard Road’s inclusive identity and allowing each mall to attain distinctive branding has been a priority in the transformation of Orchard Road’s retail typology.

Grand Park Orchard arguably plays the most significant role in this exploration. The project seeks resolve by means of simplicity and monumentality. The building’s exceptional

nature is born of its shear faces, enormous in scale. The structure, which houses a hotel and a four-storey retail podium, takes the form of a single cube. This is a highly distinguishable and recognizable design solution for a building situated at the high-flow junction of Orchard and Bideford roads. The cube’s form is broken only at this corner by an eight-storey high media LED screen: a single, clear point of advertisement. In the same vein of simplicity, the building’s faces are imprinted with a clean and intentionally modest herringbone pattern. The identity of Grand Park Orchard is established by means of readability.

WITH SIMPLE FORM AND REPETITIVE PATTERNING, AN ORCHARD ROAD ICON TAKES SHAPE

The Heeren’s enhancement has been calibrated to offer unique spatial qualities as well as vertical expansion of pedestrian traffic. The visitor is invited into a setting of intimate synergy as he engages closely with the architecture of this retail site: the sidewalk traveller does not pass by The Heeren; rather, he passes under it and through it. This is a key characteristic that effectively articulates the goals of the Urban Redevelopment Authority’s ‘Outdoor Refreshment Area’ and ‘Urban Verandah’ programmes.

A number of strategies have been employed to make this intimacy possible: a triple-volume outdoor refreshment platform at the first storey, slanting glass kiosks mounted with Plasma screens, and an elevated ‘Urban Verandah’ platform on the third storey that offers spaces to eat and drink while observing the sidewalk and street activity below. The Heeren’s undulating frameless glass façade is articulated to incorporate the fluidity and movement of foot traffic. A sidewalk escalator extends into this traffic to invite building entrance via the upper verandah.

The experience of ascending to the upper level places the traveller into a dramatic play between interior and exterior space. The layered nature of The Heeren’s façade marks an evolution of the envelope beyond surface; it has become a permeable space.

THE HEEREN BUILDING ENVELOPE AS A PERMEABLE SOCIAL SPACE

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Featured projects

Orchard Central operates through processes of layering. While the fragmented geometry of the mall’s external rain screen is often cited for its nightlong performance as a backdrop for light and colour, a more critical reading exposes a number of underlying programmatic strata.

At one level, the envelope is a material layering which boasts a façade of significant depth and structure. The outermost rain screen of aluminum louvres acts as a wrapper that in some instances serves to shade outdoor landings while in others remains a weather block for glazing beyond.

At a grander scale, numerous vantage points designed within the façade encourage a surgical exploration of the layers for those travelling upward through the building’s skin: each break in the envelope’s surface offers a unique view of the surrounding city. These gaps in the outermost layer reveal a collection of glass enclosures and open-air circulation routes. Using this circulatory system of escalators and landings, the visitor is transported from ground level to the roof decks through the building’s skin. This system extends inward, puncturing internal spaces of shops and restaurants. Layering reformulates the skin as an inhabitable, social space.

ORCHARD CENTRAL

WITH AN EXTERNAL CIRCULATORY SYSTEM AND OUTDOOR PROGRAMMING, A FAÇADE BECOMES EXPERIENTIAL

TRIPLEONE SOMERSET AT A DISTANCE FROM THE DENSITY OF ORCHARD ROAD, RETAIL ARCHITECTURE TAKES ON SUBTLETY

This façade retrofit for the former Singapore Power Building embraces a gesture of geometric subtlety and stateliness by means of a simple glass and steel frame system for the sidewalk frontage; the large panels of glass achieve lightness and transparency. On the interior, new partition walls and materials re-programme the existing structure: a double-height auditorium has been transformed into an atrium space; bamboo flooring brings nature inward. This revamp successfully blends old and new, interior and exterior.

TripleOne Somerset’s site allows it to assume a special distinction within the Orchard Road fabric.

The mall’s location just one block outside the district’s main shopping route places it away from immediate retail neighbours – it does not need to compete for visual primacy. Even so, the building has not been excluded from the street frontage imperatives of retail architecture. Most importantly, the façade enhancement has focused on amplifying interaction between pedestrian and architecture at street level.

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Featured project

Central Park A City Within

a City

As our contemporary shopping malls continue to outgrow traditional city centres, we explore Central Park’s dual purposes as a space for retail and as a space for the local community

By Kyle Fulton

YEAR: 2010

Central Park is one of Jakarta’s newest and most vibrant shopping destinations; with over 175,600 sq m of retail space set over five floors, and over 5,500 parking spaces you would be forgiven for thinking that this was an entirely commercially-driven project. Yet, as you begin to investigate the succession of spaces which sinew through the eight-hectare site you will come to realise that Central Park was imagined as a fully integrated social space with a civic purpose as great as its commercial one. As such, Central Park can be considered an important example in the evolution of the shopping mall typology.

The origin of the shopping mall typology may be traced back as far as the 15th Century to the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul. This sprawling complex of 58 covered streets was opened in 1461 and is still one of the world’s largest covered markets attracting over half a million visitors daily. The popularity and importance of the mall has endured throughout our modern history, with the

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AREA: 388,600 SQ M

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INDONESIA

first conception of the modern type being Southdale Center in Minnesota, USA. Introverted, multi-layered and with double anchor tenants, Southdale was the world’s first fully enclosed shopping mall. With Southdale, architect Victor Gruen (1903-1980) didn’t just design a building; he designed an archetype that has dominated retail architecture since the mid 1950s.

Southdale Center was built against the backdrop of America’s post war boom; the burgeoning car industry meant that the expanding middle class could move further from the commercial centre of the city. Without a centre for people to congregate, Gruen believed a break in social identity would eventually ensue. In Southdale, Gruen aimed to integrate the concentration of goods, services and entertainment found in a classical city centre within a safe, climate-controlled, social space; an idea that was hugely successful. Throughout the last sixty years, Gruen’s ideas have been employed and adapted to produce some of the world’s best shopping malls, including Central Park in Jakarta.

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Featured project

Today, the mall’s social and commercial importance continues to grow and as it does so, the typology evolves to meet the needs of each new generation of consumers. The contemporary shopping mall has expanded beyond the parameters of a retail space and has come to encompass every aspect of the classical city, including areas of employment and residence; a fact evident in the planning of Central Park.

Central Park is a highly porous building allowing visitors to flow between interior and exterior spaces with great ease and opportunity

Located along the Jalan S Parman Highway in Western Jakarta, Indonesia, Central Park comprises five components: a 5-storey retail podium, a 40-storey office tower, a hotel, three 48-storey residential towers and a landscaped park. The different components of Central Park are arranged in a characteristic arched layout. While the crystalline form of the office tower stands at one end of the ‘arch’ serving as an iconic landmark drawing crowds from the highway, the hotel and residential towers are located at another more reclusive end. Spanning between the two is the retail podium.

By planning the complex as an arch with important activity zones at either end, the architects have created a ‘dumb-bell’ effect. This has resulted in heightened foot traffic throughout the length of the

The project team

Wu Tzu Chiang Dadi Surya Rida Sobana Bernard Tay Vincentius Hermawan Daisy Layadi Fransiska Wongso Andria D Adiputra Andi Anggoro Noer Ucen Hong

Client: PT Tiara Metropolitan Jaya 0

15m

Contractor: PT Total Bangun Persada Structural Engineer: PT Gistama Intisemesta M&E Engineer: PT Skemanusa Consultama Teknik

Retail Pods

Central Park is comprised of five

Continuous Canopy

components: a 5-storey retail podium, a 40storey office tower, a hotel, three 48-storey

Backdrop 1

residential towers and a landscaped park.

Backdrop 2 Carpark

Atrium

Hotel

Outdoor Retail

Central Park may be seen as an idealised garden city with landscaping incorporated into the interior design of the atria as well as the large external park mall as people navigate between these two zones. In order to ease navigation and create retail drama, the main thoroughfare is punctuated by spacious atria, a tactic first employed by Gruen.

spaces with great ease and opportunity. The reason for this is two-fold. The first is that Central Park has been envisioned as more than a retail environment; it is also a civic space in which people from the surrounding residential developments may find a social centre. It is a space in which to hold community events, such as the lighting of Indonesia’s tallest Christmas tree, and also family events like picnics. The second reason is more commercially based – the architects, understanding the development of the mall typology, realised that malls offer more than just a retail experience; they are also for secondary recreational experiences which intersperse a day of shopping, e.g. lunch at an open-air restaurant or a post-shopping facial.

However, unlike the introverted ‘big box’ malls designed

by Gruen, Central Park responds to its urban setting and actively engages with its environment. Designed as a physical and visual retreat from the high-density and highrise areas which surround it, Central Park may be seen as an idealised garden city, with landscaping incorporated into the interior design of the atria as well as the large external park. In doing so, the architects hoped to move beyond the sealed environments of its predecessors.

In order to maximize the number of shops visited, most malls strictly control predetermined pedestrian routes.

Alternatively, Central Park is a highly porous building allowing visitors to flow between interior and exterior

Unlike the introverted ‘big box’ malls, Central Park responds to its urban setting and actively engages with its environment.

By designing Central Park as a fully integrated community complex with residential and corporate components alongside retail, DP Architects has created the idealised new city envisioned, but never realized, by the late Victor Gruen.

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Awards & events

DP Architects clinches 3

ASIA PACIFIC PROPERTY AWARDS Honouring outstanding residential and commercial developments in the Asia Pacific region, Asia Pacific Property Awards 2011 conferred three architecture awards on DP Architects in these categories: High Rise: The Trillium, Singapore Leisure: Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore Office: One Marina Boulevard, Singapore In addition, the DP-designed Central Park in Jakarta won an award in the Retail Development category.

The award ceremony was held on 31 May in Shanghai during the Asia Pacific Property Summit 2011.

DP Architects wins 12 awards

BCA AWARDS 2011 DP Architects received twelve awards at the annual Building and Construction Authority (BCA) Awards ceremony held on 20 May. DP Architects’ position as an advocator of sustainable design is reinforced with the following Green Mark awards:

Platinum - H2O Residences - 368 Thomson - 36 Boon Teck Road - CREATE

GoldPlus - Resorts World Sentosa Festive Hotel - Resorts World Sentosa Hard Rock Hotel

Gold - SIM Extension Building - NUS Cinnamon & Tembusu Residential Colleges

BCA also conferred Construction Excellence Awards on the following projects: Top : The Trillium, Resorts World Sentosa, One Marina Boulevard and Central Park.

Team SportsHub wins

BIM Skills Competition DP Architects’ Team SportsHub was named the winner of the Architecture (Professional) category of BIM Skills Competition. The competition, held on 25 and 26 April, was part of BCA’s initiative to promote industry-wide adoption of BIM (Building Information Modelling) technology. This initiative is in line with DP Architects’ thrust towards technology.

Given the challenge of designing and delivering the model for a hotelretail complex in two days, the winning team exhibited creativity and sustainability in their design concept as well as the innovative use of BIM. The team members are Wykeith Ng, Richard Galang and Ephraim Baluyot.

A second DP Architects team, Team GEN-R, comprising Tay Chin Nyap, Dennis Tan and Raghavendra Ganapati Palankar, was honoured as The Team with Best Publication and Presentation.

- Orchard Central - Pavilion 11 - The Tate Residences - Sentosa Gateway

BCI Asia Awards 2011

BCI ASIA TOP 10 ARCHITECTS DP Architects has been named one of Singapore’s Top 10 Architects at the BCI Asia Awards 2011. The award recognises contributions made by architecture firms and developers to the built environment in Asia Pacific.

20 Under 45 Exhibition in Berlin

Liveable Cities Symposium

In conjunction with the opening of URA’s 20 Under 45: The Next Generation exhibition at renowned architectural and urban design gallery Aedes am Pfefferberg in Berlin, six architects from Singapore and Germany were invited to speak at a symposium titled “Liveable Cities: Architecture Agendas in Singapore and Germany”.

DP Architects Director Angelene Chan was one of the three participants from Singapore in the lively debate on the different approaches to designing everyday spaces. She discussed the role that circulation spaces play as a negotiation between public and private, drawing a comparison between Orchard Road and Frederichstrasse, the traditional commercial street in Berlin.

The 20 Under 45 exhibition showcased the definitive works of 20 distinguished Singapore-registered architects aged 45 and under. Among the 20 are DP Architects’ Angelene Chan and Tan Chee Kiang. The exhibition was on display in Berlin from 28 Mar to 12 May.

Strategy for a Zero Energy House

Asian Green Construction Summit 2011

Jaye Tan, a certified Green Mark Professional and head of DP Architects’ Environmental Sustainability Design unit, was invited to participate in the Asian Green Construction Summit 2011 held on 24 and 25 May. Ms Tan presented on the sustainable design strategies for a ‘Zero Energy House’.

As a complement programme to her talk, Ms Tan led a site tour of a DP-designed Green Mark Platinum house on 26 May, explaining the passive design, energy-efficient approach and sustainable construction of the residential project.

Photo courtesy of Aedes am Pfefferberg

Architecture & Sustainability

SUTD Admission Briefing DP Architects was invited by the Singapore University of Technology and Design to participate in the university’s Admission Briefing held on 19 and 20 March. Representing the Architecture & Sustainability field, DP Architects exhibited several award-winning green developments.

DPians were at the event to answer questions from students and parents on the campus architecture, the importance of sustainable design, and the architecture profession and its prospects.

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DP personalities

Mike

An interview with

IN PERSON celebrates the firm’s diversity by profiling members of the DP family. The interview is conducted as a casual conversation between two individuals.

Interview by Toh Bee Ping

Mark Twain said “There’s some human instinct which makes a man treasure what he is not to make any use of, because everybody does not possess it.” Associate Director Mike Lim and Graphic Designer Fu Tingting have honed this human instinct into a near-obsession. The two avid collectors tell Design in Print about their passion for what “everybody does not possess”.

“Everyone has a weakness and mine is art. I bought my first Chinese ink painting 20 years ago. I deliberated for a long time as it was very expensive for me then.”

- Mike

Tell us about your collection.

ML: Everyone has a weakness and mine is art.

I bought my first Chinese ink painting 20 years ago. I deliberated for a long time as it was very expensive for me then, but I bought it because I love it. Chinese ink paintings are getting very expensive and the good pieces are beyond my means. So in the last five years I have branched out of ink and bought others like contemporary Chinese sculpture. But Chinese ink paintings are still my first love.

TT: I started collecting toys and figures by Hayao Miyazaki – Totoro, Laputa and Princess Mononoke – about ten years ago when I was a student. Now I also collect vinyl toys like DevilRobots’ To-fu Oyako, Evirob and Domokun. Oh, and the green alien from Toy Story. I have enough toys to open a museum! If I were to display everything, my collection can easily fill two bedrooms.

What is the most prized piece in your collection?

ML: The first painting I bought is still the most special. It is not the most valuable but has the

greatest sentimental value to me. It is by Ding Yanyong (1902-1978), a master of ink and brush who is known for his portrayals of animals, legends and opera singers. I’m drawn to the simple strokes and monochromatic colors.

Another one is a Han Meilin (1936- ). He is very famous now; there’s a museum dedicated to him in Beijing. The value of my piece has appreciated quite a bit since I bought it. But I do not intend to sell as I do not buy for investment. Han has a certain style I like – simple, monochromatic, few strokes. My taste has been consistent through the years.

TT: The limited edition pieces from Studio Ghibli.

They are also the most expensive. I have a Totoro that I bought for $100 five years ago; the price has since risen to over $500. Not that I intend to sell it. The toys by this producer are of exceptional quality and are my favorites. My wish is to visit the Studio Ghibli museum in Tokyo in the near future.

“I have enough toys to open a museum! If I were to display everything, my collection can easily fill two bedrooms.” - Tingting Any interesting stories to share?

ML: 15 years ago I was offered two Han Meilin paintings. The price for two works was too much for me and the artist was a relative unknown then. My practical side came into play and I bought only one even though I liked both. There is a tinge of regret as he has become very famous in recent years. My advice for novice collectors is to buy what you like and buy within your means. Delight in the joy of buying; if you can’t afford something, move on.

TT: I personalized a pair of To-Fu Oyako as my wedding decoration. I drew the faces and even sewed them bride and groom outfits. When the designer, Shinichiro Kitai, came to Singapore for a toy convention, my husband and I attended all three days and I got my bride and groom To-Fu autographed by him. The thing is, the fans are usually the ones taking photos of the designer’s works, but Kitai actually took photographs of my creation! I felt really honoured!

buy art, it’s another mode of thinking. I buy simply because I am moved by it. If I come into a large sum of money, instead of buying a house or a car as most people would, I would buy a painting, like a Wu Guanzhong.

TT: Collectors are also poor people! They spend all their money on chasing the next piece. It’s the worst feeling when you see something you love but can’t afford or can’t attain. But yes, I feel happy when I look at my collection. I get a sense of satisfaction, though not everyone can appreciate or understand it.

Collectors are happy people, said Goethe. Do you agree?

Tell us something about yourself that few people know about.

ML: I would say collectors are naïve people. They have a naiveté in the way they pursue the things they like. They follow their heart, not their mind.

When I buy art, my rationale is different from buying other things. When I buy shoes, I think how much wear I can get out of them. When I

ML: Most people don’t know that I’m a very traditional Chinese at heart – in the way I treat people, my work ethics, my way of life.

TT: I make a good shepherd’s pie and I hope to open a pie shop one day.

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Copyright © DP Architects Pte Ltd Printed by A&D Printhub Pte Ltd L025/02/2010 MICA (P) 150/10/2010 Published by DP Architects Pte Ltd 6 Raffles Boulevard, #04-100 Marina Square, Singapore 039594 T: +65 6338 3988 F: +65 6337 9989 E: ask_corpcomm@dpa.com.sg W: www.dpa.com.sg Photo Contributors: Wu Tzu Chiang, Rida Sobana, Wellington Kuswanto, Loh Yew Cheng and Jeremy San All photos are credited to the mentioned photographers unless otherwise stated.

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The ‘Golden Mile’ was conceptualised as a mile-long development of commercial buildings, luxury hotels and offices along what was once a stretch of coastline between Nicoll Highway and Beach Road. It was part of a government initiative to develop areas outside of the historical central business district.

The Golden Mile Complex was the first mixed-use building to be completed as part of this development and featured groundbreaking architectural elements such as a mix of private housing and commercial spaces and a soaring interior atrium. The Golden Mile Complex has been lauded by world-renowned architects as an iconic realisation of the Metabolist style of architecture characterised by additive forms and mixing of programmes.

Golden Mile Complex

1970-1974