The Robinson Tower designed by KPF
With a "V" cut the volume leaves space for greenery
Singapore: skyscraper is cut in two to make room for greenery
The Robinson Tower, an office and retail building, has opened in Singapore’s Central Business District. Designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates, it has a distinctive feature: the upper part of the tower juts out over the lower part. The “V” cut creates a public space with a plaza and garden.
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The tower’s design synthesizes the unique conditions that define the city-state’s physical and cultural context, creating a signature retail and office structure that enhances the public realm and stands out in the urban fabric.
Approved in 2014, Singapore’s Landscape Replacement Policy requires that any vegetation lost to development must be replaced with publicly accessible vegetation in an equal area within the new building. This requirement, combined with the restricted V-shaped site defined by Market Street and Robinson Road, influenced KPF’s design solution for Robinson Tower.
Its sculptural form comprises two primary volumes—an office tower above a retail podium—separated by the podium’s manicured roof space. The elevation of the tower’s mass maximizes marina views for the twenty floors of boutique offices and activates the rooftop podium and walled garden. Its staggered core doubly maximizes views from the plinth and avoids the problem of columns disturbing the public realm. With each approach, the tower’s faceted volume dematerializes and reflects the sun and sky differently, resembling a gem in its form and stature on the city skyline.
The plinth rises slightly above street level, enhancing its spaciousness and continuity from the entrance to the ground floor atrium garden. This atrium forms the nucleus where the office lobby, retail and food and beverage spaces meet, while the glazing overlooking Robinson Road encourages a dialogue between the interior and the streetscape.
Bruce Fisher, KPF Design Director, reflects on the Robinson Tower design brief: “At its core, this project presented the overlapping challenges of planning Class A office space on an uneven site with environmental controls. However, these conditions ultimately drove the design’s success, while capitalizing on the expanse of the Robinson Road visual corridor. The dynamic tower breaks free from the canyon of stoic facades, integrating green space into unique vantage points, and ultimately cultivating public space alongside a boutique, mixed-use program.”
Robert Whitlock, KPF Design Principal, relates the project to KPF’s overall design philosophy: “Robinson Tower follows in the footsteps of KPF’s work on the Marina Bay Financial Centre, which pioneered the mixed-use model in Singapore. While that project was massive in scale, with a park integrated into its plan, this distinctive tower similarly embodies the integration of context, culture and sustainability with architecture. Our impactful scheme, and its successful execution, draws on KPF’s experience designing iconic buildings for global cities, as well as buildings on limited or otherwise constrained sites in dense urban areas.”
Robinson Tower’s demonstration of tactile urbanism parallels KPF projects such as 52 Lime Street in London and 55 Hudson Yards in New York; respectively, these buildings integrate their historic neighborhood preservation and public transportation infrastructure into their forms. Their designs are also sculptural and iconic in nature, advancing the studio’s ability to craft high-quality design alongside complex requirements.
Effective July 1, 2019, Robinson Tower will house KPF’s Singapore office, established in 2018 to support the company’s Changi Airport Terminal 5 commission, designed in collaboration with Heatherwick Studio. The tower joins KPF’s high-profile portfolio of work in Singapore, including the aforementioned Marina Bay Financial Centre and Suites, One Raffles Quay and One Raffles Link, and SGX, the home of the Singapore Stock Exchange.
Source: https://www.kpf.com/current/news/kpf-designed-robinson-tower-opens-in-singapore
© 2019 KOHN PEDERSEN FOX ASSOCIATES PC
