Kampung Admiralty Singapore Building by WOHA, World Building of the Year 2018 Winner

Kampung Admiralty Building Singapore by WOHA

WAF World Building of the Year 2018 Winner: International Architectural Prize Winner

1 Dec 2018

Kampung Admiralty Building Singapore design by WOHA

Kampung Admiralty by WOHA wins World Building of the Year Award at World Architecture Festival 2018

World Architecture Festival Building of the Year 2018 Winner

photos : Patrick Bingham-Hall, Darren Soh, Lim Weixiang

The building also won the ‘Mixed Use – Completed Buildings’ award earlier this week.

Kampung Admiralty, designed by WOHA , has won the prestigious World Building of the Year 2018 award, at the World Architecture Festival (WAF) in Amsterdam. The substantial mixed-use building is Singapore’s first integrated public development that brings together a mix of public facilities and services under one roof.

The one-stop integrated complex maximises land use and is a prototype for meeting the needs of Singapore’s ageing population. Located on a tight 0.9Ha site with a height limit of 45m, the scheme builds upon a layered ‘club sandwich’ approach, with a range of commercial, residential and health space amid amenities and community services, topped by extensive green terraces adorning various elevated spaces.

This is the third time that a project from Singapore has claimed the top prize at the ‘Oscars of Architecture’, following Cooled Conservatories at Gardens by the Bay, designed by Wilkinson Eyre, Grant Associates, Atelier One and Atelier Ten winning in 2012; and The Interlace by OMA and Buro Ole Scheeren winning in 2015.

Building Description

Kampung Admiralty is Singapore’s first integrated public development that brings together a mix of public facilities and services under one roof. This one-stop integrated complex maximises land use, and is a prototype for meeting the needs of Singapore’s ageing population.

The scheme builds upon a layered ‘club sandwich’ approach. A “Vertical Kampung (village)” is devised, with a People’s Plaza in the lower stratum, a Medical Centre in the mid stratum, and a Community Park with studio (elderly) apartments for seniors in the upper stratum. These three distinct stratums juxtapose the various building uses to foster diversity of cross-programming and frees up the ground level for activity generators. The close proximity to healthcare, social, commercial and other amenities support inter-generational bonding and promote active ageing in place.

The People’s Plaza is a fully public, porous and pedestrianised ground plane, designed as a community living room. Within this welcoming and inclusive space, the public can participate in organised events, shop, or eat at the hawker centre on the 2nd storey. The breezy tropical plaza is shaded and sheltered by the Medical Centre above, allowing activities to continue regardless of rain or shine.

Locating a Medical Centre in Kampung Admiralty means that residents need not go all the way to the hospital to consult a specialist, or to get a simple day surgery done. To promote wellness and healing, the centre’s consultation and waiting areas are washed in natural daylight from perimeter windows and through a central courtyard. Views towards the People’s Plaza below, and the Community Park above also help seniors feel connected to nature and to other people.

The Community Park is a more intimately-scaled, elevated village green where residents can actively come together to exercise, chat or tend to community farms.

Complementary programmes such as childcare and senior care centres are located side by side, bringing together young and old to live, eat and play. A total of 104 studio apartments are provided in two 11-storey blocks for elderly singles or couples. “Buddy benches” at shared entrances encourage seniors to come out of their homes and interact with their neighbours. The units adopt universal design principles and are designed for natural cross-ventilation and optimum daylight.

Paul Finch, Programme Director of the World Architecture Festival commented: “The judges admired the project for the way in which it dealt with the universal condition of longevity and health treatments, social housing provision, and commercial space, which enabled substantial public realm benefits. This hybrid building also incorporates a huge amount of greenery (more than 100% of its footprint) in a series of layered levels which have generated welcome biodiversity.

“This is a project that does something necessary in an intelligent fashion from the way it connects to transport to its natural ventilation strategy, all benefitting from a decision to layer a series of buildings rather than separating them into separate tall blocks. The jury felt this was a project with potential lessons for cities and countries around the world.”

The winner was selected by a ‘super-jury’ of four venerated representatives of the global architectural community – comprising Li Xiadong (Founder and Professor – School of Architecture, Li Xiadong & Atelier Tsinghua); Nathalie de Vries (Director and Co-founder – MVRDV); Frederick Cooper Llosa (Founder and Senior Partner – COOPER, GRANA, NICOLINI, Arquitectos) and Lesley Lokko (Head of Graduate School of Architecture – University of Johannesburg).

The festival’s jury was deeply impressed by the quality of strategic thinking and engagement and how this shaped a view of how urban spaces could be developed, used and inhabited. The judges felt that “by literally building bridges to connect disparate communities, it epitomises how architectural imagination can have an activist dimension, catalysing the social potential of the city.”

The prize was announced following lengthy deliberations by WAF’s Future Project super jury, comprising Carin Smuts (Founder, CS Studio Architects), Catherine Slessor (Contributing Editor, The Architectural Review), Paul Hyett (Principal, HKS Architects) and Christine Hawley (Professor, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL)