Orchard's prized sky gardens

Shopping mall Orchard Central won the first prize in the Skyrise Greenery Awards for its rare oases
tay suan chiang, Straits Times 24 Oct 09;

At a time when many malls are carving out ever more shop space within their premises, Orchard Central devoted 1,500 sq m to flora.

Located on the 11th and 12th floors of the mall, its two sky gardens are two rare green oases high above Orchard Road. Orchard Central, developed by Far East Organization, is one of few malls in the shopping belt that has sky gardens.

Its greening efforts have earned the mall the first prize in the completed projects category at this year's SIA-NParks Skyrise Greenery Awards. It won US$5,000 (S$6,980).

The awards are open to other countries in the region, such as China and Korea.

Now in its second year, the annual awards organised by the Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) and National Parks Board (NParks) promote and recognise the greening efforts in high-rise developments.

Out of 14 entries received this year, there were only three winners. Entries were judged on how they would enhance the country's cityscape and environment, choice of plant materials, quality of maintenance and sustainability.

Besides Orchard Central, this year's other winner in the completed projects category is Central Horizon in Toa Payoh, which won US$3,000. In the ideas/ unbuilt works category, Solaris at one-north won the first prize of US$1,500.

Mr Ng San Son, an associate with DP Architects, which built Orchard Central, said making the mall green was an important part of the plans. The sky gardens cost the mall developers more than $1 million.

'This site used to be a carpark with plenty of trees, so we wanted to bring plants back to the site,' said Mr Ng, who worked with landscape architecture firm Dlqdesign on the sky gardens.

The mall's outdoors escalators will take visitors to the sky gardens, which will be opened to the public at the end of the month.

From both gardens, shoppers have clear views of Orchard Road.

On the 11th storey, the 600 sq m garden has an installation by Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in one corner, which also features a 13m-high green wall covered mostly with ferns.

There will be four restaurants on this level, each with its own private courtyard that opens to the sky garden.

On the 12th-storey rooftop is another 900 sq m of green space. Here, a pond runs across the length of the mall. The flora found here include water lilies, water hyacinths, bromeliads and Brazilian fire trees, all of which are plants that grow well under full sunlight.

To add to the greenery, two restaurants on this level - Vietnamese eatery Nouc and Japanese eatery Kuriya Penthouse - also have private gardens. Both restaurants will open next month.

Mr Chng Kiong Huat, Far East Organization's executive director for development project, said: 'We wanted to create a unique experience on the rooftop for our diners as well as socially contribute back to Orchard Road.

'So we made this area public with 24-hour access for everyone to share this new scenic Orchard Road.'

Meanwhile, some Toa Payoh Central residents have been enjoying their garden in the sky, too.

Central Horizon, a Selective En-bloc Redevelopment project, consists of five 40-storey HDB blocks connected on the 12th floor by a 240m-long sky garden.

Ms Lily Leong, a vice-president at architectural firm Surbana International Consultants which was behind the project, said the gardens are the new hot spots for the residents to get together.

As well as bougainvillaeas and ixora, shrubs were planted at this garden as they would not be easily uprooted by the wind, she added.

Another garden at Central Horizon occupies 3,000 sq m on the eighth-storey rooftop of the multi-storey carpark.

She declined to reveal the exact costs for the construction of the public sky gardens, stating that 'the landscaping cost is about 1 per cent of the actual construction cost' of Central Horizon.

Instead of just isolated spots of sky gardens, Solaris will have a garden that spirals from the ground floor to the roof of the 15-storey building for research and development in Buona Vista.

The $148-million Solaris is expected to be completed next year.

taysc@sph.com.sg

Book launch

In conjunction with the awards, NParks, the National University of Singapore and the Building and Construction Authority are launching a book on vertical gardening.

Vertical Greening For The Tropics showcases successful examples of vertical gardens in Singapore. The book ($29) is available at major bookstores from Nov 1.