With its tropical climate, Singapore is well-suited to greenery-covered architecture and boasts the award-winning Oasia Hotel and Kampung Admiralty projects. Serie Architects and Multiply Architects' lush Oasis Terraces is another worthwhile addition to the architecture-rich city state, providing locals with a versatile mixed-use space that contains a community center and health clinics.
Oasis Terraces has a total floorspace of 27,000 sq m (290,625 sq ft) and takes its place very well among the surrounding buildings in the town of Punggol, with a style that complements the area's existing architecture.
"Our design is informed by the open frames commonly found in the facades and corridors of HDB's [Singapore's Housing and Development Board] housing blocks of the 70s and 80s," says Serie Architects' Christopher Lee. "We've transformed this precedent into a light and open frame that captures and accommodates diverse programs for the community in a landscape setting – it is an architectural framework for communal life to unfold."
The building is centered around a series of stepped garden terraces that create children's playgrounds, an amphitheater, dining tables, and other outdoor spaces. Elsewhere lies retail and restaurant space, while a good chunk of the interior is taken up by health clinic facilities. A large sloping green lawn flanks the building and a sheltered plaza is situated near the edge of a waterway.
Oasis Terraces is topped by a large green roof that features planting beds to promote urban farming. The idea is that locals will be able to plant, maintain and enjoy their produce. The building was designed with passive ventilation and natural lighting in mind and is partially cooled by the prevailing breeze.
Source: Serie Architects