Unveiling plans for Singapore’s first supertall skyscraper

• The first supertall skyscraper is a word for structures taller than 300 meters.
• It will soon rise in Singapore.
• The new tower, 8 Shenton Way, will offer offices, a hotel, and 34 stories of opulent homes.

The first “supertall” skyscraper, which is a word for structures taller than 300 meters (984 ft), will soon rise in Singapore.

From 2028, the new tower, 8 Shenton Way, will soar above the city-state in Southeast Asia and offer offices, a hotel, and 34 stories of opulent homes.

The 1.6 million square foot skyscraper was created by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM), the American architects of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa, the highest structure in the world.

The company said its design was “inspired by bamboo woods” when it unveiled plans on Thursday. A succession of cascading rectangular forms with rooftop terraces are depicted in digital renderings. Over 107,000 square feet of elevated green space will be part of the project, with plants selected with bird and butterfly attraction in mind. The public will have access to more over half of the site’s planted areas.

At a news briefing on Thursday, SOM design principal Nic Medrano said, “We aim to build places that are comfortable, where people want to be, and are healthy.” He said that all inhabitants will be able to “access nature” within “three or four levels.”

8 Shenton Way will reportedly be one of Asia’s “most sustainable” skyscrapers, according to the company. Once operational, the 305-meter (1,001-foot) tower will use 55% less energy than necessary to receive the highest sustainability grade from the local government, according to the architects.

Mustafa Abadan, a partner in SOM design, claimed that a variety of strategies, including a facade constructed of terracotta, reinforced bamboo, and heat-efficient glass, will result in energy savings. Meanwhile, the tower’s outside will have horizontal and vertical fins that will reflect sunlight, keeping the building cooler in Singapore’s hot environment.

The city’s district cooling system, an underground system of pipes that directs chilled water into air-conditioning units in buildings to lower electricity usage, will also be connected to the tower.

In a news conference, Abadan told CNN that “they are the kinds of things that aggregate into the most sustainable building of this magnitude in Singapore.”

The spherical AXA Tower, which debuted in 1986, will be demolished to make way for the tower. The new structure will partially utilize the original base, which would “save material… and minimize the carbon footprint of the building from the get-go,” according to Medrano, who has already started the demolition process.

Singapore has one of the densest populations in the world, although its skyline is comparatively low-rise when compared to places like Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The nation, which is less than half the size of London, has multiple military air bases, two civilian airports, and a building height restriction of 280 meters (919 feet) in downtown areas.

The Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) of Singapore declined to comment on whether or not the city has ever imposed height limitations. Although a spokeswoman for the urban planning agency told CNN that “allowable building heights are subject to technical restrictions as well as review based on respective design and site context,” the spokesperson did not go into detail about why 8 Shenton Way was allowed at its proposed size.

The adjacent Guoco Tower, which was finished in 2018, is the only other structure to date to rise higher than 280 meters. The 290-meter (951-foot) tall building, which was also created by SOM, houses a penthouse apartment that was infamously purchased by British billionaire entrepreneur James Dyson in 2019 for 73.8 million Singapore dollars (at the time, $54.2 million).

In addition to the Burj Khalifa, SOM has created two of the ten highest structures in the world: the One World Trade Center in New York and the CTF Finance Centre in Tianjin, China. It created the design for 8 Shenton Way in association with a nearby Singaporean architectural firm, DCA Architects.

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