WeGO at the World Cities Summit and visits to Smart Sustainable Buildings in Singapore
July 31, 2022
Seoul- Starting the first day in Singapore, guided by the smart sustainable building architect F&P, WeGO visited the one of the most prominent smart sustainable buildings in Singapore, South Beach. Occupying an entire city block between the Marina Center and the Civic District, the South Beach creates a 150,000 square meter eco-quarter in the heart of downtown Singapore. Combining new construction with the restoration of existing buildings, the mixed-use, energy efficient new urban quarter brings together places to live and work with shops, cafes, restaurants, a hotel and public spaces.
A wide landscaped pedestrian avenue – a green spine – weaves through the site and is protected by a large canopy, which shelters the light-filled public spaces from the extremes of the tropical climate. An environmental canopy bridging the two buildings spans 280m, covering the whole development. The canopy protects pedestrians from the sun by filtering sunlight and solar glare. The canopy’s undulating form combined with the gentle arc shaped facades of the towers capture and channel prevailing winds into the ground level space, providing natural cooling and ventilation. Rainwater collected from the towers and the canopy is channeled to a harvesting tank underground. The wavy form of the canopy forms valleys where the rainwater can be channeled into, collected and recycled for irrigating South Beach’s lush garden landscapes. On the ground are former military buildings, while conserving the historic heritage of these buildings, the area has been converted into a wide-range of programs such as a restaurant, pub, lounge, and meeting rooms.
The next stop was the Apple Marina Bay Sands, a fully glazed dome with a 30-metre-diameter structure. Apple Marina Bay Sands is all about the delicate interplay between transparency and shade. The building is a dome composed of 112 pieces of 12m x 3m pane curved glass. The glass panels were treated with frit and coatings to create a fully glazed external experience, while at the same time providing solar shading for the interior. The dome starts with transparent glazing at the ground level, and gradually transitions into darker panels at higher levels to reduce solar gain. The structure dissolves the boundary between the inside, creating a minimal platform that floats gently in the water. The interior of the dome is lined with custom fabric baffles that spiral from around eye-height to all the way to the top. Each baffles are uniquely shaped to counter sun angles and provide an optimal night-time lighting effect. The fabric baffles provide glare control and reduce the area of exposed glazing, lowering energy required to cool the space. The fabric material aids acoustic control. At the top of the dome is a fully glazed semi-opaque oculus that provides a dramatic shaft of light that travels the space identical to the way it does at the famous Pantheon in Rome.
Mayor Oh Se Hoon, the President of WeGO and the Mayor of Seoul Metropolitan Government joined WeGO’s visit to the smart sustainable buildings in Singapore and showed special interest in the usage of various textures and innovative architectural technologies utilized for sustainable buildings.
About WeGO
The World Smart Sustainable Cities Organization (WeGO), established by 50 founding members in 2010, is an international association of city and other local governments, smart tech solution providers, and national and regional institutions committed to the transformation of cities into smart sustainable cities WeGO’s Secretariat is based in Seoul and supported by regional offices in Africa (Abuja, Nigeria), East Asia (Chengdu, China), Eurasia (Ulyanovsk Region, Russia), the Mediterranean (Beyoğlu, Turkey), and Latin America (Mexico City, Mexico).
WeGO has more than 200 members around the world and serves as their international platform to improve the quality of life, innovate in the delivery of public services, and strengthen regional competitiveness.
Media Contact:
Name: Eunji Park
E-mail: eunji@we-gov.org
Phone: 02-720-2935