Non-Western Art and Culture
I love assignments when there are so many good things to pick from. The beauty of Singapore doesn’t disappoint. Singapore is on my bucket list of places to go see. I think after seeing some of what they have to offer, it will be on yours also. Singapore is a tropical island in Southeast Asia, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula. Singapore is a city, a nation and a state. The temperature in Singapore ranges between 73 to 90 degrees which makes it great for plant life. However, water stress is projected by 2040. Healthcare is 6th in the world, 30,000 Americans live in Singapore, free trade between the US and Singapore have created 215,000 American jobs, 20 billion in trade and 4,200 American businesses are in Singapore. Up until 2021 Singapore was still considered a developing nation but has since joined us in being considered a 1st world country. I think what makes Singapore different from Europe or America is that they were developing in the twentieth century.
I’m really proud of them that they learned from other countries what was important to them and were so focused on natural beauty.
Professor Kljaich challenged us to include a tradition that transcends a specific time period. I think the earth is the most beautiful thing there is. Singapore introduced an idea to mold the earth and its beauty into the city it is today back in 1967. I think coming into harmony with the earth and committing to bringing natural beauty into a city is a wonderful tradition to have.
Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew wanted to reshape Singapore with lush greenery and a clean environment as a way to make life more pleasant for its citizens; so he introduced the “garden city.” 55,000 trees were planted by 1970 and new laws were passed that required developers to create green spaces within their developments. So more of a forced tradition but it’s still running strong after 55 years. 1.4 million trees were planted by 2014. They even created a national tree planting day. I wish more developers in Anchorage, the so called “City of Lights” would incorporate more “Lights” into developments. It would be amazing for tourism. I could totally see a skyrise in Anchorage with a northern lights theme.
Marina Bay Sands Hotel and ArtScience Museum
Architect Moshe Safdie
2006-April 27, 2010
5.7 Billion
The Tang Dynasty shipwreck treasure is on exhibit here. It is a 2,200 room hotel. The hotel is 55 stories and rooms run $295 a night and there is also a mall inside.
The shape of this building is amazing. A huge ship on top of a building is the last thing I would expect to see. It’s balanced by the three buildings and at night the color of this structure just lights up the skyline with thousands of lights from the hotel rooms and mall. The texture is a mix of a building and plant life. I could see this building in Las Vegas, Reno or Atlantic City.
Park Royal by Pickering
Hotel was designed by WOHA, a Singapore-Based architecture firm.
Finished in 2013
16 floors and 15 elevators. Bar and restaurant. $171 a night. Just wow! I’ve never seen anything like this. Architects really are artists on such a huge scale. I just love this garden city idea. Plants just make everything fresh and bright. It just looks like a healthy environment when so many things are growing. This structure could be the side of a cliff or mountain side. It brings life into the city for me. There are 3 levels of foliage on each side of the building. The balance between building and plant life looks 50/50. For me the colors blue, green and brown really bring in the natural elements. This structure doesn’t disappoint. It is literally dripping with shades of green plants. The shape of the ledges where the plants are, are not perfectly shaped. I like this because I think it give the building a shape more in line with nature with it not being so perfect. I also like the shape because it is not identical from any view point but because of the balance of three ledges on both sides of the building it works. I also like how the emphasis is on nature and the building is just shaded in the background. This is how I see living with nature. I would love to wake up to this much greenery every morning. The rich textures of all the plants and the smells from them would make a wonderful home.
Only 104 parking spaces are available but it looks like on Google maps it is close to everything. Totally deserved awards in this 367 room hotel. This Architecture works with the natural elements and I find it breath taking.
Awards
2016 Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) Architectural Design Awards – Design Award (commercial category)[8]
2015 CTBUH Skyscraper Award – Urban Habitat Award[9]
2015 Singapore Experience Awards – Business Event Venue of the Year[5]
2014 Australian Institute of Architects International Chapter Architecture Awards – International Architecture Award (commercial category)[10]
2014 German Design Council Iconic Awards – Best of Best Award (public category)[11]
2014 Good Design Award – Green Good Design Award[12]
2013 INSIDE World Festival of Interiors – Best Interior Design (hotels category)[13]
2013 World Architecture News (WAN) Awards – Hotel of the Year[14]
2013 President's Design Award – Design of the Year[15]
Gardens by the Bay
Includes 3 water fountains, Flower Dome and Cloud Forest, 1.5 million plants from every continent. Thousand year olive trees, The garden city
Built 2005-June 29 2012
British Firms Grant Associates and Gustafson Porter
I’ve never seen anything like this. They made plant life and technology mix and it is stunning. I just think this would be an amazing place to bring children. Can you imagine the dreams they would build being exposed to such an amazing creation. There are a mixture of man made colors in the lighting and nature made colors in all the flowers and greenery. The shape of the huge light up trees have a natural vein look that looks like coral, veins or branches and that shape is what merges the man made structures with the natural elements. The foliage is layered so the value of the colors look like rows of rainbows in places. Again, what got me were seeing things where I didn’t expect them like flowers on the ceiling. This structure is so large and has so many components the lines are everything from spiral, wavy, curly, curved and straight lines. I wish we had something like this in the US.
The Interlace
Build 2007-2013
World Building of the Year 2015
Architect Ole Scheeren
When I look at this structure I see a Vertical village, natural ventilation, cascading sky gardens and roof terraces.
I read a lot about how hot it gets in Singapore and how the architect placed the building to increase air flow and give maximum views. I wish the Russian builder Royalty Homes here in Wasilla, Alaska would have thought of that when building my home. Our fourth bedroom is like a gateway to hell with how hot it gets. This structure is made up of little color besides the green roof top gardens and pools. It is a cement white color with windows on every surface. The buildings are made up of horizontal rectangle windows and vertical lines. The shape reminds me of blocks stacked on top of each other. I like that it was designed to move airflow and those airflow spaces helps to not block the view./author/sara-Hart. “Marina Bay Sands.” Architect, 3 Jan. 2011, https://www.architectmagazine.com/design/buildings/marina-bay-sands_o.
About Marina Bay Sands,
https://www.marinabaysands.com/company-information/about.html.
Ashaboglu, Selin. “Parkroyal on Pickering.” Architect, 23 July 2015, https://www.architectmagazine.com/project-gallery/parkroyal-on-pickering_o.
Chua, Christia. “Gardens by the Bay.” AFAR Media, 20 Apr. 2021, https://www.afar.com/places/gardens-by-the-bay-singapore
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“Gardens by the Bay.” Singapore Sky Garden - Visit Singapore Official Site, https://www.visitsingapore.com/see-do-singapore/nature-wildlife/parks-gardens/gardens-by-the-bay/.
“Marina Bay Sands.” Entro, https://entro.com/project/marina-bay-sands/.
Moore, Rowan. “The Interlace in Singapore by OMA/Ole Scheeren.” Architectural Review, 23 July 2021, https://www.architectural-review.com/today/the-interlace-in-singapore-by-oma-ole-scheeren.
“Parkroyal Collection Pickering.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 6 Mar. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkroyal_Collection_Pickering.
Saieh, Nico. “Parkroyal on Pickering / Woha.” ArchDaily, ArchDaily, 23 Apr. 2013, https://www.archdaily.com/363164/parkroyal-on-pickering-woha-2.
“Singapore - United States Department of State.” U.S. Department of State, U.S. Department of State, 28 May 2021, https://www.state.gov/countries-areas/singapore/.
“Singapore.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 Apr. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore.
“Singapur.” Asian Tourism, https://asiantourismbd.com/destination/singapur/.
The gardens by the bay looks to be such a magical place and I think I could spend hours staring up at those trees and walking around the fountains. It makes me happy when nature and man come together and create something beautiful. We spend so much of our time killing our planet, so it makes me happy when they work together in a way to form a beautiful, healthy work of art.
ReplyDeleteI have seen pictures of the boat on top of the building before but I had never known that its concept was linked to such an interesting idea. The concept of building not only structures but nature is such a beautiful idea. I have lived in so many places in my life and witnessed how removed nature is especially in metropolitan areas. I think this idea would benefit those areas environmentally, but also the residents' mental well beings. Nature has always had a calming effect on me and I'm sure many others. So, I am sure if this were introduced into high-stress areas, people's lives could be impacted positively. Thank you for sharing such beautiful architecture.
ReplyDeleteWow!! I have never seen any of these places and they are so incredible! I love the concept of bringing earth and nature into the architecture in cities. I was born and raised in a town very close to Pittsburgh, PA., so I always appreciate nature so much in all its beauty. I love the trees in some of these buildings. Great Blog post!!
ReplyDeleteSingapore is beautiful, and it is on my list of places to visit. This exhibit's architecture is stunning. It actually reminds me a lot of Dubai's architecture. I'd never heard of Park Royal before, but it'll be on my list of things to see when I go.
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