Green Wall Changi Airport

TIERRA DESIGN - CHANGI AIRPORT TERMINAL 3

THE GREEN WALL Tierra Design Terminal 3 is the latest star in the constellation of Singapore’s Changi Airport, perennially voted at the top of the world’s airports. Tierra's contribution was to make landscape features the defining elements of the terminal, rather than mere decorations. The green tapestry is perhaps the largest interior landscape feature anywhere in the world – 14 meters high and 300 meters long. It was designed not to screen and hide the huge dividing wall, but to enhance and soften its proportions. Strategically located in the mid-belly of the terminal, the wall separates two main functions, providing a clear demarcation of an international border; the green tapestry gives it a form that is friendly, organic, and alive. This wall between landside and airside is Singapore's border, and it projects an image of green-ness on a grand scale, of the power of simplicity, of an elegant sensitivity to natural materials, of harmony of nature with the built environment; it underscores Singapore’s search for uniqueness as a small player in a highly competitive world. The goal was to combine building technology and a living green “wall” in order to create an interior Architectural Landscape environment. To embrace this integration, the design of the Green Tapestry at Terminal 3, Changi Airport Singapore, was created to challenge the traditional approach to landscape architecture and to create living spaces without borders between buildings and garden, architecture and landscape - Architecture of the Landscape. Tierra Design2 The project began as a limited design competition in February 2000. Since the overall planning and design for Terminal 3 was still at a very preliminary stage, a holistic design approach could be taken to integrate and to blend the building design, the interior design and the landscape design into one cohesive whole. Tierra Design> Located in the transitional zone of the newest Terminal to Singapore’s City in a Garden, the living tapestry separates the two spaces (the landside check-in and the airside lounges) from each other. This vertical garden is the most distinctive feature of the new terminal building and spans 300 meters in total length separated only by four water features. Passengers moving through the new “atmospheric” environment of the new terminal building can enjoy the interior suspended garden not only from the departure area but also from the arrival area. The unique characteristic of plants found in a tropical rainforest inspired the selection of plants for the vertical garden. In the rainforest, vines and epiphytes successfully compete for growing space by lifting themselves up off the ground with the help of tall neighbors, or volunteering themselves onto wet bark of living trees. They manage to survive and to thrive with less neighbors crowding round about them; in this manner they are able to reach further up to the rainforest canopy to gather light for life-sustaining photosynthesis. Tierra Design At Terminal 3, the Green Tapestry consists of more than 10,000 plants. The design maximizes planting space in order to introduce more greenery, warmth and softness to the predominantly stone, glass and steel structure of this mega-structure. It achieves this without losing valuable floor space. Hanging three meters over the baggage claim area, it rises fourteen meters into the voluminous cavity of the building. Tierra Design There are many vertical green walls and other significant landscape projects around the world, but the Green Tapestry designed for Terminal 3 is unique since the airport is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  It had to be designed to be maintained easily without the need for scaffolding. The plants are grown on stainless steel cables secured to the infrastructure system and each cable is removable in case there is a need to replace plants individually. Tierra Design Maintaining the green tapestry requires an intangible quality called passion. Like any garden, it will mature and evolve in response to the care that it is given. In future it will not be the same as it is today. That is the beauty of this vertical garden as there will be an ever changing tapestry of living texture. This is the living process of this Architecture of the Landscape. Project Details Project: Terminal 3, Changi Airport, Singapore Client: Civil Aeronautical Administration of Singapore Completion Date: 2000 - 2008 Project Cost: undisclosed Landscape Architect: TIERRA Singapore Project team: Franklin Po, Tan Peck Cheong, James Loh,