Regularly voted the best transport hub in
the world, Singapore’s Changi Airport already
offers flyers a menu of distractions that
includes 24-hour spas; two cinemas; a clinic;
cactus, orchid and butterfly gardens; Xbox
stations; free Snooze Lounges; and a rooftop
swimming pool. The Jewel Changi Airport
project, though, makes all that a light aperitif.
Connected to the airport’s existing
terminals 1, 2 and 3 by pedestrian bridges,
the Moshe Safdie-designed, S$1.7bn (£917m)
complex is the centrepiece of Singapore’s
outsized aviation ambitions. When it opens
next year, the enormous glass-and-steel
cocoon will enclose a 134,000 sq m space
filled with some 300 boutiques, bars and
restaurants, as well as a 130-room hotel.
Its five-storey indoor garden will boast 1,400
trees; 25m-high walkways made from netting,
giant slides and mazes; a 50m-long suspended
bridge; and a 40m waterfall at its core.
A dedicated facility for seamless fly-cruise
and fly-coach travelling services, meanwhile,
will make transfers to waiting ships and
outbound road trips a breeze. The entire
development fits like a complex jigsaw within
ten storeys, five of which are below ground.
Building Jewel in a working airport
environment added enormously to the
complexity of construction, says Jean Hung,
CEO of Jewel Changi Airport Development.
‘We’ve needed precise coordination to
minimise disruption to the current airport
operations,’ she explains. Unsurprisingly, one
of the more critical design and engineering
challenges has been to specify special glass
that prevents glare from affecting air traffic
controllers in the adjoining control tower.
The façade is also double-glazed to minimise
aircraft noise levels within the Jewel complex.
Soon to be joined by a Heatherwick Studio
and Kohn Pedersen Fox-designed Terminal 5,
Jewel, says Hung, will help make Changi ‘a
compelling destination that can fill travellers’
needs for an experiential journey’. ∂
safdiearchitects.com; jewelchangiairport.comCrown
jewel
Changi Airport’s new
complex puts transiting
on a different plane
PHOTOGRAPHY: DARREN SOH WRITER: DAVEN WU112 ∑