Knowing where you are

Oasia Hotel Singapore

The pool on 21st floor

For the various pools of Oasia Hotel, Patricia Urquiola employed ceramic tiles from the Chro­ma­Plural system by the German brand Agrob Buchtal. Each pool has its own character: The one on the 21st floor is a stylish loca­tion for the lounge club located there: the 1.20-metre-deep pool, with a dynamic chevron pattern made of light and dark blue tiles, is supple­mented by an ankle-deep “wading pool”, in which you only cool your feet while you enjoy sipping on a cock­tail.

The building

The pools of Oasia Hotel are elemen­tary compon­ents of a buil­ding which embo­dies an unmist­akable archi­tec­tural accen­tua­tion through its colour, shape and propor­tion. The declared inten­tion of the archi­tect was “to create an alter­na­tive language of imagery for high-rise buil­dings. We wished to combine inno­va­tive options for utili­sa­tion of space with a tropical approach, which culmi­nated in an open, permeable, lush, green tower.”

The Sky Gardens

In addi­tion to the red – but soon to be predo­mi­nantly green – façade, the Sky Gardens of Oasia Hotel are among the inspi­ring sustaina­bi­lity aspects of the buil­ding, with their green plants, fresh air and resul­ting venti­la­tion. The Sky Gardens were the answer to the owner’s desire for striking areas in the buil­ding. Given the limited ground area, WOHA decided on an approach which was later referred to as “Club Sand­wich”: a series of diffe­rent layers arose, each with its own Sky Garden. These gardens, described by WOHA as “higher-up ground floors”, were able to be utilised to multiply the “valuable yet limited ground area. In this way we managed to create spacious public areas for recrea­tion and encoun­ters throug­hout the entire buil­ding.” WOHA is respon­sible for the overall archi­tec­ture and the concept of layers stacked up on each other.