2013 BOY Winner: Hotel Common Space

What if you didn’t just replace the trees and plants uprooted during construction but multiplied the greenery, seamlessly and sustainably? That’s what Richard Hassell and Wong Mun Summ did at this hotel, conceived to rise from a garden. The two founding directors first evoked the outdoors figuratively in the drive-in entry plaza, where bonsai and rock formations are referenced by the contoured precast-concrete surface overhead. This outdoor space then flows effortlessly into the lobby, where planted islands flourish beneath a ceiling sculpted with plasterboard and fiber-reinforced concrete forms that echo the exterior’s. Above the lobby, the top of the podium from which the guest towers rise is landscaped with an infinity pool surrounded by cabanas that resemble colorful birdcages by day and floating lanterns at night. The towers themselves, containing 637 rooms and suites, are glass wrapped every few stories by the hotel’s most exotic shared amenity: undulating “sky gardens” totaling an incredibly lush 160,000 square feet. 

Project team: 

Donovan Soon; Sim Choon Heok; Bernard Lee; Toh Hua Jack; Amber Dar Wagh; Mappaudang Ridwn Saleh; Evelyn Ng; John Paul Gonzalez; Josephine Isip; Goh Kai Shien; Luu Dieu Khanh; Tanszue Hann; Alen Low; Pham Sing Yeong; Vanessa Ong; Novita Johana; Andre Kumar Alexander.