Clarke Quay

Completion: 2009

Size: 33,000 m2

AWARDS:

2008 Cityscape Asia Awards, Best Waterfront Development

2007 Cityscape Architectural Review Awards (Tourism, Travel & Transport - Built)

Alsop Architects

Alsop’s first major project in Asia, a dramatic redevelopment of the river front district of Clarke Quay in Singapore, is succeeding in drawing tourists and locals back to the historic waterfront.

Developed by Capitaland, the SGD88million (approx. £30.6 million) mixed-use scheme, designed to increase commercial and leisure activities, gives the riverfront area a new identity and re-positions Clarke Quay as a vibrant and attractive destination.

Crucial to the success of the project has been the architect and engineer’s ingenious manipulation of the site’s micro climate through the design of a distinctive and sophisticated shading/cooling system that provides the quayside with tremendous visual interest and environmental benefit.

Following a steady decline since its heyday servicing bustling trade on the Singapore river, and an unsuccessful conventional gentrification of the heritage site in the 1980s, Alsop was appointed in 2002 with a brief to rejuvenate the prominent three hectare diamond shaped site.

For Alsop the challenge was to provide a new ‘lease of life’, not just by developing an attractive re-design of the streetscape and waterfront, also to address the perennial climate problem - and to find ways to mitigate against Singapore’s ambient temperature and heavy rainfall - without resorting to the traditional scenario of creating an internal air-conditioned mall.

The first phase of the waterfront revival, which was completed in March 2006, has effected a total transformation of the area’s ambience, activity and appearance through the redevelopment of three main areas: the riverfront, the streets and River Valley Road.