“Sports in the Sky” towers in Singapore, Asia by Team of University of Nottingham

Article source: Team of University of Nottingham

This design research was undertaken as a part of Master’s programme in Sustainable Tall Buildings at the University of Nottingham, which is also accredited to CTBUH ( Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat)- Chicago.

Recent years have seen unprecedented growth in the construction of tall buildings, with more, and taller, skyscrapers being constructed than at any other time in history.

• Project: “Sports in the Sky” towers
• Location: Singapore, Asia
• Team: Khushboo Bansal, Harsh Varshneya & Sanjiv Saini
• Tutors: Philip Oldfield, David-Nicolson Cole

According to the United Nations, nearly 200,000 new city dwellers are added to the world’s urban population everyday. By 2050, little over 40 years from now, the world’s urban population will stand at over 6 billion- double of what is today. Where will these people live, work and play?

The site is located in Tanjong Pagar, Singapore, a city-state with tropical rainforest climate, no defined seasons and significant rainfall. Singapore has a successful housing program, with more than 80% of the population living in high-rise social housing, often encompassing significant vertical and skygardens. The site itself sits above the Tanjong Pagar underground station which sees a daily footfall of nearly 20000 people. To the south sits a belt of high-rise buildings, but to the north are the low rise shopkeepers of Chinatown, meaning the site acts as a bridging element between the two typologies.

Inspired not only by environmental issues, but also by the cultural and vernacular traditions of the city of Singapore where they are placed in. This is important in maintaining the cultural integrity and continuity of any urban domain, but especially in Singapore where western model is embraced rapidly. The “Sports in the Sky” tower is truly inspired by place- both culturally and environmentally.

Sports in the Sky towers aim to promote social sustainability in the city of Singapore by providing extensive public spaces at height which predominantly revolve around the idea of SPORTS! Health is the most important issue in today’s urban life and should be paid attention to. In a city of Singapore where people are out of their homes for nearly 12 hours a day for work, also need some time for improving or maintaining their health. In such a scenario, the “Sports in the Sky tower” provide splendid opportunity for the people of Singapore to live and play at the same place, make use of sports facilities in the sky, thus making a paradigm shift from the general notion of playing sports only at the ground.

Inspired by the Downtown Athletic Club building in the United States of America which was the first building to incorporate sports at height, “Sports in the sky” tower takes a step further by successfully incorporating high density housing and sports facilities coupled with extensive retail facilities which facilitates a successful housing scheme.

The city of Singapore which boasts of Singapore as its national sport, currently has only one full size football field. Sports in the Sky tower revolves around the idea of 4 tall buildings linked by sky-bridges a height and a central full size football field right at the centre in the bottom. The ground plane interface is completely porous by lifting the towers on its cores from the base and making the plane completely permeable for the general public. Separate service cores mark the lateral entries for the general public who want to use the sports courts at height and the residents who live there. The central football field acts a magnet for the nearby communities to meet and socially interact. The central field will be the place to be buzz with all the activities. Due importance has been given to the privacy of the residents who have a completely separate access and service corer dedicated for them in each tower. There are two “loops” of sports between the 8th – 12th level and the 16th-20th level connected by covered skybridges.

Other than sports, the towers have skycourts and skygardens at height which redefine the typology of tall buildings in principle and the idea of living at height where the residents enjoy all the facilities which are generally provided at ground. Taking a leap further, the towers are strategically placed in such a way to have views across the city and also the sea which forms the main highlighting point of the project. The towers step back at the height providing clear infinite views across the city and naturally forming sky-courts at height by virtue of its shape.

Tags: Asia, Singapore

Categories: Skyscrapers, Sports Complex

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 30th, 2014 at 4:55 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.