Sunday, February 14, 2010

Changi T3


The one green wall that is impossible to miss when visiting Singapore... The Changi Airport Terminal 3's 300-meter long green oasis/green tapestry/vertical garden/indoor landscaping (not sure what they officially call it). This system is a custom design-built system (as opposed to a pre-fab modular product) conceived by Tierra Design of Singapore, and last year it was honored with an award from ASLA.


When the wall was newly built and hasn't grown yet, you can see the service area behind it. But using a double plant support system, the wall quickly achieves a full-lush cover within two years. As you can see in the photo below, there is one climber at the front and one at the back. the plants in the front receives natural light and additional metal halide (?) lighting. While the plants at the back are shaded by the one at the front, so they are almost fully artificially lit.


When I first saw this back in 2008, I thought it's quite barren...
but over the years, it has definitely grown lush and gruffy --gruffy being my new favorite word to describe robust kind of leafy lushness. I definitely had enjoyed spending hours hanging out at the café nearby (for the free internet, really... but the airy greeny space sure puts me in just the right job-application mood. I wrote for and applied for some 10 jobs whilst being there!).

6 comments:

jx said...

Hello! =) How have you been? Globetrotting sure seems like a good thing to do. I was at T3 on 14feb too! Gosh. All the best for your job search! -jiaxin

Betty Lo said...

Stephanie, I think of you when looking at vertical landscapes, so clever, quite free to reach for the sky. Do the plants grow upwards or downwards ?

sephanie said...

Jx: Hiii! Good to hear from you! Hope you got the e-mail!

Betty: Plants grow to the direction of the light... which is usually, up! =)

Betty Lo said...

but the fern in your profile photo is growing downwards ?

raissa said...

Hi Stephanie!
How are you?
So you spent ur v-day in Singapore, then?
When r u coming back to Jakarta?
I wish I were in Sg when u were there! Then we'll be able to meet up and catch up!
Miss ya - Raissa

sephanie said...

Betty: That's just the way ferns are. They are epiphytes so they hang down from taller plants so that their spores maybe born in the wind.

Raissa: Hehehe, I was in Jkt during valentines-cny. I'm still traveling to and fro here and there... Where are you now?