PARKROYAL on Pickering is a 2013 project by WOHA in Singapore. This glossy hotel is complemented by tropical sky gardens and wave-like precast concrete integrated throughout the exterior and public areas to create a power play between organic and inorganic aesthetics.
PARKROYAL On Pickering By WOHA:
The PARKROYAL on Pickering is a Singapore-based hotel designed by WOHA Architects as a hotel-as-garden. The hotel features massive curvaceous sky gardens cantilevered at every fourth level between the blocks of guest rooms.
At the same time, greenery flourishes throughout the entire complex. WOHA paid no attention to the placeless blandness of the modern Singapore skyline. WOHA has reconciled the excessive construction of 21st-century Asian cities with the remediation of the built environment.
The PARKROYAL on Pickering is a landmark that responds to the city as its civic duty. The hotel comprises a long and narrow site on the western edge of the central business district, overlooking the historic shophouse district between the park and the Singapore River.
The development could respond to many separate and disparate environments, provide public connections between those zones, and make a grand (and green) urban gesture. The podium is a remarkable architectural theatre that presents a monumental embellishment to the Singapore streetscape.
WOHA refers to this as ‘topographical architecture’ and has used the geological metaphor in many large-scale public buildings. The elaborately composed timber moldings above the reception area reveal WOHA’s fondness for using crafted ornaments in interior design while incorporating the traditions of vernacular Asia within the modern city.
Photos by: Patrick Bingham-Hall
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