Singapore is often referred to as the Garden City – and with good reason. The city state is packed with parks and greenery covered buildings, including the impressive Eden and CapitaSpring. Former World Building of the Year winner WOHA has now added to the lush landscape with its remarkable Pan Pacific Orchard.
The luxury hotel building takes the form of a simple rectangle, with 35 floors and 347 rooms. Its front-facing facade is arranged into four large open-air terraces, each of which is filled with plants and trees and has its own name and theme.
The Forest Terrace is placed at the ground level and contains a cascading water plaza, flanked by forest trees. The Beach Terrace is above and is conceived as a tropical oasis with a lagoon, a sandy beachfront and palm groves. Further up still, the Garden Terrace contains the hotel's bar and lounge, as well as a manicured garden with reflection pools and planter beds. Finally, the uppermost terrace, the Cloud Terrace, consists of a landscaped events plaza surrounded by a 400-seat ballroom, a function room, planters and reflection pools.
All of the terrace areas are closely linked to the interior of the hotel proper, ensuring daylight and ventilation permeate within, while helping to take the sting out of the tropical climate. The hotel rooms have varying finishes to reflect the character of each nearby terrace area.
"Pan Pacific Orchard contributes to the vibrancy of the city by revealing celebrations that are normally hidden indoors," said WOHA. "This is made possible by the open-air, cross-ventilated yet sheltered spaces which are designed specifically for Singapore's equatorial climate, where warm humid air, low wind speeds and frequent, yet unpredictable, heavy rainfall make fully outdoor events a challenge.
"The design flows seamlessly across urban design, architecture, landscaping, and interior design in a fully integrated approach. By distributing the rooms and amenities into six stories stacks between each sky terrace, the 347-keys hotel is broken down into boutique-like precinct destinations within a vertical neighborhood. The interiors echo the theme of each terrace, all of which celebrate the concept of nature."
In addition to its focus on cross ventilation and natural cooling, Pan Pacific Orchard is topped by a photovoltaic canopy, helping to reduce the building's draw on the power grid.
Source: WOHA