Description

Jewel Changi Airport is a glass dome with a complete landscape inside and outside. This is adventurous architecture and landscape. From the very start the Landscape Team worked closely with the large number of people and organisations who all played essential roles in designing, constructing and administering the building and its vast landscape. The landscape was always to be a powerful part of the concept, both a public green-space under the glazed roof of the dome, as a roof garden over the many functions in floors below. The great caldera that occupies the interior space was transformed into a “Forest Valley”, complete with canyons 5 stories high, waterfalls, forest trails, bridges, restaurant frontages, and links to the outer airport connections. The numerous trees and palms were purchased early to ensure they would be ready at the right time in the programme. The implementation process was designed into everything. A special cold house was built to test 162 tropical plant species for their adabability to the climate-controlled conditions inside the dome. The climate had to be comfortable for people, and conducive to the plants as well. Although this is a completely man-made environment, the designers and implementers had to address the technical and management issues that would sustain this sensitive environs. Soil mixes were specified to be manufactured scientifically to give best plant growth. Creating a unique ecosystem and sustaining it is the long-term objective. The project is innovative , in that in the future, when it becomes necessary to live in enclosed climate-controlled environments, the Jewel will stand out as one of the first prototypes.

Landscape Architect

ICN Design International