Park Royal in Singapore wants to lead the way in green high-rise development

In the heart of Singapore, a green luxury skyscraper is being built that once completed later this year will accommodate regular office workers, tourists and business travellers among the tower's vertical gardens, waterfalls and leafy terraces.

With the Park Royal Tower, the architect firm WOHA wants to change how future skyscrapers are built. Instead of the rather cold and hard straight lines that are characteristic of today's more ordinary skyscrapers, the Park Royal Tower will be built with a much softer and greener approach. Some of the building's more natural features include waterfalls, contoured green pathways, leafy terraces and vertical gardens. WOHA has designed the Park Royal Tower with the nearby, and among locals very popular, Hong Lim Park in mind. And with its 15000 square meters of green space the skyscraper will be twice as large as the park.

"The design of the Park Royal Tower demonstrates how we can not only conserve greenery in our high-rise city centre but multiply it in a manner that is architecturally striking, integrated and sustainable," said Donovan Soon from WOHA.

"It underpins our garden city image and will set Singapore as a world leader on the stage of green high-rise development," he said. "The soft foliage and sensuous curves of the skygardens will come together with the crisp, streamlined glazed tower forms to create an arresting architecture."

The green walls on the tower will be filled with shade trees, palms and other green plants. Besides helping to disguise the above ground parking lot these plants will help to scrub the air clean of any emissions and, similar to the air trees in Spain, help keep the hotel and surrounding areas cooler in the hot climate.

The Park Royal Tower is also designed to make use of natural lightning and ventilation throughout the building to help mitigate its environmental impact. Other green features include a rainwater harvesting system and automatic sensors to regulate energy and water usage. Photovoltaic panels will also be placed on the roof and provide energy for the tower's landscape lighting.

For its ambitious green urban design the building project has received Singapore's Green Mark Platinum score, the nation's highest environmental certification. The Park Royal Tower is expected to cost $350 million SGD and will open later this year.