For the average air traveller, airports conjure up little more than the image of stark fluorescent lighting, endless queues and hours spent in nondescript grey lounges with bleary-eyed fatigue.
The latest addition to Singapore’s award-winning Changi Airport, however, aims to redefine this all-too-common airport experience by offering travellers something entirely out of the ordinary.
Called Jewel, this US$1.7-billion, 134,000-square-metre structure will feature never-before-seen fixtures that will make even the most hardened air traveller stop and stare in appreciative wonder.
Designed by Canadian architect Moshe Safdie, the building’s shape resembles a blood platelet if viewed from above – if a blood platelet were made of clear glass and held together with a steel matrix.
Inside this latticed structure, greenery creeps up the sides of the walls as part of the Forest Valley – a garden filled with thousands of trees, plants and shrubs collected from around the world.
“We wanted to come up with something truly timeless, and the concept of a paradise garden came about,” said Safdie in a 2018 interview with Architectural Digest magazine.
Part of this paradise garden vision will be brought to life through the Canopy Park, a network of suspension nets upon which travellers can bounce or walk with their children while enjoying aerial views of the landscaped forestry beneath them.
However, the piece de resistance is the Rain Vortex, a 40-metre-high cascading indoor waterfall located at the heart of the structure.
Serving as a passive cooling system for the building, the waterfall collects rainwater that will be pumped to other parts of the airport for landscape irrigation and provides a breeze for the garden spaces.
At nightfall, the waterfall will turn iridescent, with a light, water and sound show as part of an evening display. Upon completion, it will be the tallest indoor waterfall ever, with 10,000 gallons of water gushing through per minute at peak conditions.
For travellers who need retail therapy, a whopping seven floors are dedicated to shopping, featuring more than 280 retail outlets and a 130-room Yotel – the first of the hotel chain’s branches in Asia.
Jewel is slated to open its doors to the public in 2019.
By fusing lush greenery, ample sunlight and flowing water, Changi’s latest addition aims to not only provide travellers a much-needed break from air travel, but a welcome respite for the soul as well. – dpa
