CapitaLand wanted to redevelop the Golden Shoe Car Park site in Singapore’s CBD into a new integrated development, combining commercial offices, serviced residence, retail, amenities, and abundant gardens and greenery. They sought to incorporate biophilic design elements to cool the spaces and connect people with nature.

We collaborated with CapitaLand to transform the site into CapitaSpring, a 280-metre-tall integrated development. We provided environmentally sustainable design (ESD) consulting, façade, acoustics and audio-visual design, and completed the civil and structural reference design. A key feature of the development is the Green Oasis, a four-storey, 35-metre-tall void filled with lush greenery and trees. Within this space, the landscaped areas for social activities and recreation were meticulously designed to optimise natural daylight, wind and thermal comfort.

CapitaSpring is a place for people to live, work and connect. The Green Oasis and lobby offer a cool respite from the city’s humid weather and the Sky Garden is home to the tallest urban farm in Singapore. The building promotes biophilic design by integrating nature into its design and offers the latest in workplace and lifestyle innovations.

Creating a cooler, greener environment

CapitaSpring is home to over 80,000 plants and has a total landscaped area of more than 90,000 square feet. 

To support the greenery at the Green Oasis, we performed shadow and daylight analysis to understand the illuminance level, collaborating with the landscape architect to select the location of major planting and plant species. The spiral walkways create voids to allow abundant sunlight and fresh air necessary for the lush tropical plants that fill the space.

We performed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation and thermal modelling to understand the expected air speed and ensure thermal comfort of each space.
 
We implemented passive design strategies, including natural ventilation to reduce electricity consumption. Additionally, cool air from the air-conditioned office spaces above is recycled, lowering the temperature in the Green Oasis by approximately three to four degrees Celsius.

The Market Street Hawker Centre, on levels two and three, holds 56 food and drink stalls. Balancing rain protection, daylight, and natural ventilation in the hawker centre’s design was challenging, but we partially achieved it through the façade design.

For the offices and serviced residence, we optimised the wall-window ratio to allow sufficient daylight to enter the building while minimising solar heat gain.

Video still of CapitaSpring Biophilic Design
Discover how we used biophilic design at CapitaSpring to create spaces which are naturally cooler and less reliant on 24/7 air-conditioning.

Creating comfortable spaces with clever façade design

CapitaSpring’s façade features a lively interplay of orthogonal pin-striped fins within a sleek aluminium frame, revealing pockets of green terraces and communal spaces at multiple elevations. We optimised the design through parametric analysis to reduce the impact of high wind speed and rain, maximise daylight and minimise solar heat gain. 

We performed a parametric study for the Hawker Centre, to find the best horizontal louver angle and facade design to minimise the risk of wind-driven rain. The facade design for the Green Oasis, spanning 35 metres high, posed several challenges. Supporting the weight of the wavy aluminium fins on the façade required carefully positioning tiebacks to the existing structural ramps, beams and columns. For safe and ease of access to maintain and clean the façade, ceiling and other surfaces, we designed a monorail system for the building maintenance teams. 

The facade of a tall building

CapitaSpring's façade showcases pin-striped fins within a sleek aluminium frame, revealing green terraces and communal spaces. © CapitaLand

Landscaped gardens inside a tall glass building

The landscaped gardens in the Green Oasis provides a connection to nature in the heart of the city. © CapitaLand

CapitaLand Development is dedicated to advancing sustainable urbanisation. By partnering with companies like Arup, we bring the expertise and innovation needed to drive decarbonisation and global sustainability efforts.

Giovanni Cossu

Head of Sustainability, CapitaLand Development