The Jewel at Singapore Changi Airport is a new crystalline event space that connects the three terminals together. Inaugurated in 2019, it offers retail space, but is mainly a transitory space with one of the biggest indoor gardens of the world, including a giant waterfall. Its architect Moshe Safdie calls it a “paradisal oasis”.
This project has been conceived as a standalone destination, boosting Singapore’s appeal as a welcoming stopover location. The Jewel is connected to Changi’s Terminal 1 through its expanded arrival hall and linked to terminals 2 and 3 via pedestrian bridges. But it is also open to residents of Singapore who are expected to make up to 60% of the visitors. Moshe Safdie wanted to offer more than a Disney-like attraction, making The Jewel, which is open day and night, attractive for return visitors. The Jewel is a lush urban oasis, a joy for the senses.
Beneath a soaring glass dome, a 40 meter-tall waterfall cascades from a central oculus positioned at the top of the vaulted roof canopy. This feature, named the rain vortex, is surrounded by an indoor landscape of vegetation, with walking trails – referred to as the forest valley – traversing the site. Recalling the tradition of metropolitan centers with great parks, the vegetation associated with Safdie’s design is continued externally, with the approach to the airport lined with large canopy trees and lush greenery.
The Jewel culminates in the evolution of the Crystal Palace and the Parisian passageways. It is not only a garden experience, but a whole event in itself.
Event-space as a term emerged in the 1990s and in this context is understood as a means of articulating how space performs through time and movement and how performance is spatialized through the event, especially so in theater architecture.
Public spectacles are not just a form of leisure and pleasure; rather, they define the appearance of public and open spaces. This kind of spectacle has a centuries-old tradition and was part of the history of European cities.
Processions, religious ceremonies, parades, demonstrations – they are all events. Since the 1990s – landscape architecture has turned to presenting itself as an event. Partly due to marketing strategies, this form of mixing nature and landscape with pleasurable activities and events has merged with other forms of temporary exhibitions, such as art and gardening installations.
There is a science behind exploring the landscape event, Lucius Burkhardt named it strollology. Strollology has its own blog article within this storytelling site.
Singapore Changi’s Terminal 3 by SOM Architects is a steel- and glass structure with four above-ground levels and a 9-acre roof that spans ticketing, departure and arrival areas. The overhead light modulation system consists of glass skylights and thousands of aluminum louvers. During the day, the sensor-driven louvers limit the amount of direct sunlight that enters the space by filling it with diffused light. At night, artificial light reflects off the louvers to provide a uniform pattern of illumination. It is all about aesthetic appeal.
Changi Airport ties onto Walter Benjamin’s theories on the place of dwelling that is opposed to the place of work and offers phantasmagorias of the interior (Of Dreams and Houses). It is the right example of a little city in itself, offering shopping, dining and entertainment venues (spa, movie theater) but above all, an abundance of sensual experiences and strolling options for the stressed traveler (The Butterfly Garden). The Kinetic Rain Sculpture is the biggest and most complex kinetic sculpture of its kind in the world. Though an optical spiel and not a horror theater, as was the original meaning of phantasmagoria, it is a magical illusion, which is what Benjamin’s understanding ultimately was. It is supposed to add a contemplative element to the lively transit space of the departure hall.
Phantasmagorias were a form of horror theater around the eighteenth and nineteenth century, often shown at fairs and exhibitions, with the use of magic lanterns and often with puppets or miniature figures. It was a cheap thrill that lasted a few seconds or minutes, as long as the projector rotated, involving fantastic stories. For Walter Benjamin they were a materialistic expression, a commodity. Many event-spaces have art installations that touch on the notion of phantasmagorias.
The Jewel stands for more than spectacle. It stands for the airport of the future: The blending of urban and recreational elements within the airport construct. A year after its inauguration, Zurich Airport unveiled The Circle, which is a similar, yet less spectacular event-space.
Sources:
Dorita Hannah, Event-Space: Theater Architecture & the Historical Avant-Garde, 2008.
David Leatherbarrow, “Architecture’s unscripted performance”, in: Performative Architecture: Beyond Instrumentality, 2005.
http://www.som.com/projects/changi_international_airport__terminal_3)
http://www.changiairport.com/en/airport-experience/attractions-and-services/kinetic-rain.html.
Walter Benjamin, The Arcades Project, 1928-1983.
Birgit Kröniger, Der Freiraum als Bühne. Zur Transformation von Orten durch Events und Inszenierungen, 2007.
