Airport as a Nature Experience

Since 2019, an enormous elliptical glass dome has overarched an area of 135,000 m² between the existing terminal buildings of Singapore’s airport. Along with restaurants, a cabin hotel, shops and leisure facilities, an artificial rainforest extends over five terraced levels. More than 900 trees have been planted here, among which bridges, meandering paths and a net hung 25 metres above the ground invite visitors and travellers to enjoy a stroll past art installations, floral arrangements, labyrinths and meadows effusing artificial mist. However, the main attraction is the world’s largest indoor waterfall, which courses 40 m from an opening in the glass dome. 

Safdie Architects is an office devoted to architecture and urban planning. It was established by Moshe Safdie in 1964. The studio has realized a great diversity of large-scale projects around the world, including the Marina Bay Sands Resort in Singapore. The research-based, future-oriented office is headquartered in Boston and has branches in Jerusalem, Toronto, Shanghai and Singapore.

An in-depth essay on the topic of Biopolis is featured in Detail 6.2021.