Marina Bay Financial Center, Singapore

Marina Bay Financial Center, Singapore
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

The development of Marina Bay marks the next chapter in Singapore’s ongoing commitment to a dynamic urban environment. Matching the energy of Sydney Harbor, Marina Bay is a vibrant urban room and a new focal point for the downtown district: Water is the unifying element that connects a performing arts center, retail, dining, hotels, residential buildings, and commercial facilities.

The Marina Bay Financial Center is situated on the first development site in the new district. Comprising three office buildings and two residential towers on 4.9-acres (two-hectares), the project employs a crystalline architectural language to blend dissimilar program elements into an integrated assemblage. The crystal forms, clad in heavily tinted, low-e glass with a high shading coefficient, are intended to create a strong profile on the Singapore skyline.

Their faceted surfaces break up the massing of the individual buildings by reflecting sunlight in different ways. The towers are oriented to maximize views of the marina.Three of the towers - two offices buildings and one residential structure - rise above a low podium, unifying both the ground plane and the overall development. The other two towers stand free of the podium assemblage. A city park, situated between the towers, covers a below-grade retail mall, which is connected to Singapore’s multimodal transportation network.

Connected by covered walkways, the commercial component contains retail spaces at grade. The 30-story office tower, which sits on a waterfront site, culminates in an open-air rooftop, where a 5,000-square-foot restaurant sits within a bamboo garden and features views of the bay and the civic core of Singapore. At 45 stories, the second office tower offers views past the lower building. Both of the commercial towers have projecting horizontal louvers to shade occupants from Singapore’s tropical sun. A public plaza around the lower building provides porosity through the site and a focal point for the retail component.Horizontal fins and continuous balconies serve as shading devices on the residential buildings and ensure formal continuity with the commercial towers.

Marina Bay Financial Center Singapore.

Information & Images Courtesy By Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates

Aga Khan Award for Architecture

Review and Selection Procedures

Master Jury
The review of projects and the selection of Award recipients is the responsibility of an independent Master Jury specially appointed for each Award cycle. Each jury is pluridisciplinary, and brings together specialists in such fields as history, engineering, philosophy, architectural conservation, and contemporary arts, as well as practising architects, landscape architects and urban planners.
For the Eleventh Award Cycle, the Master Jury will hold two meetings to arrive at its final decisions. At its first meeting, the jury reviews the submissions enrolled through the nomination programme. The jury examines the documentation on each project and select approximately twenty-five to thirty projects for On-Site Project Review by experts selected by the Award.

On-Site Project Review
The Project Reviewers are architectural professionals specializing in various disciplines, including housing, urban planning, landscape design and restoration. Their task is to examine on site each of the projects shortlisted by the Master Jury, verifying project data and seeking additional information such as user reactions. The Reviewers must consider a detailed set of criteria in their written reports, and must also respond to specific concerns and questions prepared by the Master Jury for each project. To ensure maximum objectivity, Reviewers report on projects located outside their native countries.

Selection of Award Recipients
At the second week-long meeting of the Master Jury, the Project Reviewers make personal presentations on the projects they have reviewed. After evaluating the projects in closed sessions, the Jurors select the Award recipients and determine the apportionment of the US$ 500,000 prize fund. Since the success of a winning project may be the product of efforts by diverse individuals, groups and organizations, the Master Jury apportions prizes among the contributors - architects, other design and construction professionals, craftsmen, clients and institutions - whom it considers most responsible for the success of each project. The decisions of the Master Jury are final.

Passage from: http://www.akdn.org/akaa_review.asp