My name is Paul Baker, I'm one of a number of directors at Wilkinson Air Architects based
in London and I was the project director for Gardens by the Bay, an extraordinarily challenging
and amazing project in Singapore. The project was to develop two cooled conservatories in
the tropics, so two very sizable glass houses to accommodate a really extraordinary collection
of plants that would never be able to grow in Singapore without an artificial environment.
The idea of the glass houses was in every way to be as original as possible, so whilst
we had a very, very strong requirement for the comfort and the cooling and the temperature
of the environment, we had absolutely no brief in terms of what they should look like. So
the trick that we explored was how to get a really simple structure, a grid shell as
light as possible and then stiffened by a series of ribs that stabilised the grid. That allowed
us to have this total clean internal view and externally it generated quite a strong
form to both of the biomes. One was pulled up to allow for a mountain to sit inside,
the other one was kind of stretched out to allow for a flower field, the flower field
being in the Mediterranean, the mountain being in the cloud forest. As you come closer to
the conservatories, you walk into a covered space to give you shade and shelter. Shelter
from the sun and shelter most particularly from some of the very heavy rain that sometimes
pours down. And that canopy is a nice counterpoint to the hard steel and glass. It's all about
wood, it's got a lot of colour in it, it's got a lot of play in it and it's also deliberately
quite dark so that the drama of entering the conservatories is amplified by the darker
compressive space on the outside. So for the Mediterranean biome, you come in through a
deliberately compressed space where colour starts to be really strong. The lid is squashed
down so that when you come into the biome itself, everything opens up and unfolds. And
we played some nice tricks in terms of encouraging the sight line to pull you into the space.
There is no set path, you can go anywhere you like, it's your own adventure so it's
all about you making your own route and understanding and exploring the building. The cloud forest
is very different, it's an entirely prescriptive route. As you enter, again, you're coming
from a more compressed darker environment and then you're completely assaulted by the
cold, the wet of waterfall, the real drama of moisture and noise. So as you walk around
the forest floor, you explore the base of the mountain and then take a lift to the top.
We felt that it was very important to do the last bit on foot so you actually do climb
to what we call the lost world. That then allows you to do the descent in a really creative
way. So we have a series of staircases, escalators, but most particularly a series of walkways
that take you right out into the cloud forest. With a whole range of different plants, so
the story there is that at all the levels, you get a different autopilot experience.
So both buildings have got a very different approach and one of the things I really enjoy
is that in themselves I think they're fun, but I think the combination of the two is
part of the real pleasure because you get a real balance of experiences. One's cold
and wet and much more excitable, you're kind of challenged more in terms of vertigo and
the root. The other one is much softer, a really pleasant place to spend time because
of the Mediterranean climate. There's a great restaurant, it can be a lot more relaxed.
The whole team's joy has been experiencing people having the experience. This building
has got a pretty strong educational remit, it's got nice messages, but it's also an
awful lot about fun and families and people go there to have fun, but to also celebrate.
So you see a lot of people who are going for wedding photographs or just a good family
day out. The more travelled you are, the kind of more
excited or more complacent you get about those sorts of experiences, but being from
Singapore and being very much in a very urban society. I think the real drama of a strong
although artificial, dramatic environment is quite exciting.
