Architecture - Singapore Style
The entrance to the
'ION Orchard'
a shopping centre and integrated residential tower (Orchard Residences) on
Orchard Road
- the epicentre of Singapore's dedication to the consumer
The flowing lines of the entrance to ION Orchard
Above the ION Orchard entrance towers Orchard Residences. This whole complex started operation in 2009 having been built on a park over an underground station. It was designed by the Singapore firm RSP Architects Planners and Engineer Ltd.
Picture Posting says good-bye to Singapore with some images of its recent architecture. The energy and imagination to be seen is inspiring. Not only where it might be expected in buildings dedicated to the arts, but in such necessary facilities are the new underground stations which make the traveller wish to loiter. Or the entrances to shopping arcades (Surely worth five photos!) or the paving of underpasses. Everywhere there is visual delight.
Porch for the escalators to the cool malls below
Water! I wonder if the picture is good enough for you to be able to see that the curves are water shooting up out of one hole and exactly descending back into a second hole?
By contrast the
Parliament Building
constructed as recently as 1995 - no plaudits here
Singapore greatly honours green spaces, and indeed greenery. Here in the form of the Queen Elizabeth Walk where style does not change - except maybe in sunshades
The Chinese Garden station on the underground with Parc Oasis, built in 1985, behind it and a...
...thunderstorm behind that. OK tower blockiness, but with just a touch of grace in the curves
Esplanade Theatres
contains a concert hall and a 2,000 seat theatre. The triangular aluminium shades give it the appearance that evoked at once the epithet 'Durian', rather better than the original design which had produced the response 'Copulating Aardvarks'
The Marriott hotel on Orchard Road with its Chinese upturns and areas of greenery
A worker traversing the Durian's roof
Wall and lighting used in the extension to the National Gallery - as in so many places in Singapore, details worthy of a pause
Downtown Core seen from the pool in front of the Durian - complete with ornamental balls
The ground level of the Durian. Durians are the (unofficial) national fruit of Singapore. Smelling of faeces, tasting divine, is there a moral here?
Within the Wheelock Cone, Orchard Road, the escalators taking (U.K.) shoppers to reassuringly familiar locations
Looking up inside the glass and steel cone which covers the entrance to Wheelock Place
The entrance to Bugis Junction - an integrated development of shops, offices and hotel
The Wheelock Place entrance. A shopping centre and office block opened in 1994; underground it connects to ION Orchard
These under-bridge paths are interesting to the finest detail, compare this to some of our distressing pedestrian underpasses in the UK
Style in eating
with tasteful lighting and decoration. In fact a picture slipped in for cháu Hân, to encourage his new restaurant in Tĩnh Gia
Under the Esplanade Bridge - a boat passes between piers
Picture Posting has little on big cities and no where to go from here but to the opposite extreme.
Next week's page
takes you to Pasumalai Thangal Village - so remote that it is not on Google. It is about 150 klms south-west of Chennai within the Manalapadi P.O. (which is on Google) in Tamil Nadu - remote, quiet, simple.
Connections... The last page showed something of the towers of Singapore's 'Downtown Core' To a city centre lacking the kind of style shown above - but with so much to offer - Cairo Style but in a Georgian manner - Kirkcudbright's High Street Or go to the pagewhich was added one year ago. Go to the Picture Posting contents page Return to the top |