CapitaSpring is a striking 280-meter-tall skyscraper, a collaborative creation by the architectural firms BIG and Carlo Ratti Associates. This mixed-use tower hosts a vibrant community, featuring restaurants, office spaces, serviced apartments, and sky gardens that span from the ground floor up to the 51st level, creating a unique aerial oasis. This innovative design continues Singapore’s legacy of pioneering vertical urbanism.
In recognition of its sustainable and inclusive design, CapitaSpring was honored in 2018 with the Green Mark Platinum and Universal Design GoldPLUS awards by the Singapore Construction Authority.
Occupying 93,000 square meters in the heart of Singapore’s financial district, this high-rise replaces what was once a public parking lot and hawker center. The building’s design features clean orthogonal lines, lush greenery, and a dynamic interplay of textures that bring energy and contrast to the urban environment.
From multiple perspectives, the building’s vertical exterior elements appear to be pulled apart in a seemingly random pattern, unveiling lush green spaces at the ground level, core area, and rooftop “sky garden.” This design reinforces Singapore’s “garden city” image, accommodating over 80,000 plants. It boasts a green plot ratio (GPR) of over 1:1.4 and a total landscaped area exceeding 8,300 square meters (approximately 90,000 square feet), which is 140% of the site’s footprint.
At street level, the Jinkaiyuan Center restores a segment of the historic Market Street, transforming it into a public space. This creates fresh green breathing zones for tenants and pedestrians within Singapore’s dense central business district, integrating pedestrian walkways and expanded landscaping areas for enhanced urban livability.
A winding garden path offers a natural entrance to the City Room, a spacious open area standing 18 meters tall at the building’s base. This space provides shelter from sun and rain, warmly welcoming tenants to separate office and residential lobbies, while guiding visitors toward the food center within the tower’s podium. The iconic Market Street Hawker Center has been revitalized, occupying the second and third floors and featuring 56 food stalls. It remains a vibrant hub of Singapore’s culinary heritage and a vital community gathering place.
The first eight floors of the tower are dedicated to serviced apartments, offering amenities such as a swimming pool, massage pool, jogging track, gym, shared kitchen, resident lounge, and barbecue area. Above these, the top 29 floors provide premium office spaces where professionals can enjoy stunning panoramic views of the Singapore River and Marina Bay during their breaks.
The architectural core, situated between the office and residential zones, includes four connected organic soft landscapes known as “oases.” These 35-meter-high outdoor gardens are designed for work, leisurely walks, relaxation, exercise, and social activities. The oasis concept seamlessly integrates nature vertically within the building, providing generous green spaces for occupants while respecting the site’s spatial constraints. It blends the elegance and fluidity of contemporary architecture with the lushness of tropical flora.
The vertical soft landscape design of the oasis draws inspiration from the plant hierarchy of tropical rainforests. Leaf size correlates with light intensity within the vegetation layers: shade-tolerant plants with large leaves form the forest’s “bottom layer,” thriving with minimal direct sunlight, while trees with smaller leaves occupy the upper canopy.
The rooftop garden at Kaiyuan Center offers panoramic city views and hosts the Arden Food Forest 1. Currently, over 150 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and flowers are cultivated across five themed planting areas, supplying fresh produce continuously to the building’s restaurant.
Project Drawings
Project Information
Architects: Bjarke Ingels Group, Carlo Ratti Associates
Area: 93,000 m²
Year Completed: 2022
Photographer: Finbarr Fallon
Responsible Partners: Bjarke Ingels, Brian Yang
Project Leaders: Gorka Calzada Medina, Martino Hutz, Song He
Project Managers: Eric Li, Günther Weber
BIG Sustainability Team: Tore Banke, Anders Holden Deleuran
BIG Landscape Team: Dina Brændstrup, Kirsty Badenoch, Ulla Hornsyld
Team Members: Aime Desert, Aleksander Wadas, Aleksandra Domian, Alessandro Zanini, Anke Kristina Schramm, Augusto Lavieri Zamperlini, Dalma Ujvari, David Schwarzman, David Vega y Rojo, Davide Tarditi, Dimitrie Grigorescu, Dominika Trybe, Elise Cauchard, Eriko Maekawa, Espen Vik, Ewa Szajda, Federica Locati, Filippo Lorenzi, Francisco Castellanos, Frederik Skou Jensen, Gabriele Ubareviciute, Guoyu Liu, Helen Chen, Jacek Baczkowski, Jakub Wlodarczyk, Jonas Käckenmester, Julieta Muzzillo, Luca Pileri, Luis Torsten Wagenführer, Lukas Kerner, Malgorzata Mutkowska, Maria Teresa Fernandez Rojo, Matilde Tavanti, Moa Carlsson, Nataly Timotheou, Niu Jing, Orges Guga, Patrycja Lyszczyk, Pedro Savio Jobim Pinheiro, Philip Rufus Knauf, Praewa Samachai, Qamelliah Nassir, Rahul Girish, Ramon Julio Muros Cortes, Rebecca Carrai, Roberto Fabbri, Samuel Rubio Sanchez, Shuhei Kamiya, Sofiia Rokmaniko, Sorcha Burke, Steen Kortbæk Svendsen, Szymon Kolecki, Teodor Fratila Cristian, Viktoria Millentrup, Vilius Linge, Vinish Sethi, Weijia Lu, Xin Su, Xinying Zhang, Zari van de Merwe, Zhen Tong
Collaborators: Carlo Ratti Associati, RSP Architects Planners & Engineers (Pte) Ltd, ARUP Singapore Pte Ltd, Beca Carter Hollings & Ferner (S.E.Asia) Pte Ltd, Arcadis Singapore Pte Ltd, COEN Design International Pte Ltd, Takenouchi Webb Pte Ltd, Nipek Pte Ltd, Asylum Creative Ptd Ltd, Jacobs International Consultants Pte Ltd, Ignesis Consultants Pte Ltd, PH Consulting Pte Ltd, TSM Consultancy Pte Ltd, Dragages Singapore Pte Ltd, Meinhardt Singapore Pte Ltd, Squire Mech Pte Ltd
Location: Singapore
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