2014

Placemaking,Retail, Sustainability, Landscape, Asset enhancement, Research

SPARK’s proposal for a “people orchard” at the heart of Singapore’s historic retail district gave the studio the opportunity to put forward a series of visionary, practical, proposals for transforming a large area of the city.

The plan focused on a single axis: a kilometer stretch of Orchard Road, Singapore’s great boulevard which over the years has become the domain of the car. People are surrounded by traffic, pinned to increasingly narrow pavements and suffering from noise and pollution. SPARK proposed, in the spirit of the origins of Orchard Road, (fruit and nut plantations) that the traffic be located underground, allowing the street to become a new multi-level linear park full of public space, gardens and entertainment facilities. The street is covered by a lightweight canopy above the tree tops that assists in moderating the street temperature by means of solar cooling, shading and induced air movement.