Zaha Hadid, the first woman to win the most prestigious and high profile prize in architecture – Pritzker Prize – continues to dazzle the architectural world with her latest projects that often push the boundary of imaginable and feasible. With a slew of prize-winning projects, like the MAXXI Museum in Rome or the BMW factory in Leipzig, Hadid’s designs are often very successful both commercially and practically, providing enough ‘wow’ factor to captivate the attention of the often fickle media, solidifying the projects’ credibility with proven structural masterity and, above all, exhibiting keen consideration for building users that ultimately get to have the last word as to whether a building really works or not.
Hadid’s latest project for the Singapore Botanical Gardens by the Bay is a typical Hadid project in many ways, but is also a very refreshing addition to Singapore’s expanding resume of built structures by ‘startchitects’ (i.e. star architects). This particular creation of Hadid’s London office, dubbed ‘Supertrees’, has been one of the most anticipated and talked about architectural projects in this modern Southwest Asian city and the world alike. It has generated plenty of international interest, with writers, reviewers, reporters trying to get a glimpse at the rising structures and snap the latest pictures of the construction progress.
The ‘Supertrees’, as a series of vertical garden structures, have always been an integral part of the master plan for ‘Gardens by the Bay’ by an architectural firm Wilkinson Eyre. The development is expansive, encompassing 101 hectares and is located within Singapore’s new Marina Bay complex. According to Inhabitat, the main purpose is to showcase over 226,00 plants from all over the world in a series of contained environments.
The master plan, as a whole, ever since its conception, strived to fuse together the built and natural environments while, at the same time, showcasing the latest innovations in sustainable technology. Hadid’s ‘Supertrees’ embody the master plan’s core mission in that they are specifically designed to mimic ecological functions through the use of the integrated technologies. Each tree is not simply a steel structure with metal branches reaching out outward at the top, similarly to a tree canopy, but is a mechanism designed to support the ecosystem created within the gardens.
Inhabitat reports that the ‘Supertrees’ will vary in height from 25 to 50 meters and can act as receptacles for collecting rainwater that can be reused later for watering plants, as shading canopies to provide refuge during the day when the merciless rays of sun begin to feel like they are burning right through skin and as light sources at night. They are solar-powered and utilize the full potential of the always-sunny Singapore skies. The multi-functionality of trees gets even more creative, with some of the trees scheduled to house bars or shopping outlets at their treetops. Visitors would cross from tree to a tree by using aerial walkways that provide links to connect these free-standing structures.
This project has also been a wonderful publicity staple for the city of Singapore itself. Not known so much for the quality of architecture as it is known for its aspirations to compete with Dubai and Hong Kong by building bigger, shinier, taller and curvier than its neighbors, Singapore has long been silent about caring about the overall operational quality of its architectural projects, especially in terms of catering to building user needs, sustainability issues (not just being green for the sake of being green) and minding the surrounding context of the city.
Just like most of Zaha Hadid’s projects, ‘Supertrees’ have already enjoyed plenty of media attention, even though the opening of the Gardens is still far in the future, in 2012. However, ‘Supertrees’ are not just publicity magnets. They are making solid marks thus far in the performance and sustainability aspects of design and, even more surprisingly for Singapore, are designed with keeping in mind the larger master plan and the ultimate intent of the gardens as a preservation haven.
Sure, the ‘Supertrees’ are ultimately meant to become the instantly-recognizable icons for the Singapore Gardens by the Bay, but they are not just objects placed blindly in the landscape as overpriced, overstructured wayfinding elements. ‘Supertrees’, at least in their conception and execution, strive to merge functional practicality with innovation and ‘look-at-me’ trend in Singapore’s architecture. These steel trees, along with the Gardens by the Bay project as a whole, are very context-specific, utilizing the knowledge about Singapore’s tropical climate and its distinct waterfront-minded lifestyle. ‘Supertrees’ would not work, as they are designed, in New York or Taipei or Moscow; they are, distinctly, unique and, most importantly, distinctly of Singapore.
SOURCES:
Meinhold, Bridgette. “Solar-Powered Supertrees Sprout at Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay.” Inhabitat.
“Singapore Gardens by the Bay.” Singapore: National Parks Board.