Singapore is renowned as a garden city with its lush gardens and parks. PARKROYAL COLLECTION Marina Bay explores an inversion of the relationship between nature and architecture, inserting a jungle into an elder but still robust 30 year old building. The originally designed by John Portman, the building features a 21-storey urban scaled atrium. The vast vessel is modified and designed as concourses and plazas filled with gardens, trees and plants, breathing new life into the still exuberant atrium complex, creating a bold new hospitality experience and a one of its kind Garden-in-a-Hotel.

Greenery features prominently from the moment guests enter the hotel, the rear of the lift-core is transformed into a 3-storey tall green wall. 180-degree ascending planters, clad with lightweight screens, bring the gardens up into the main atrium. Guests then enter the atrium via a treetop bridge, flanked by 6m trees below.

Garden pavilions, playfully called Bird’s Nests, were then introduced to the edge of the stepping planters, creating a more relatable scale. These lightweight organic structures create delightful focal points within the gardens, and were inspired by songbirds that the hotel was renowned for. Food spaces embrace the garden concept as well – the private dining rooms were expressed as Greenhouses that extend outwards into the atrium space. These were designed as glass rooms that not only let natural light in, this time it allows diners to see and be seen in the lush atrium garden setting.

Through careful integration and crafting, the gardens become integral to the experience of the hotel, creating a bridge to nature that shows large scale greening is not only possible and beneficial in new-built projects, but also in older re-invigorated ones imbued with new life.

 
Furniture: Kettal, B&B Italia, Herman Miller, TG Decor, Cheng Meng Furniture, Arista Interior Decor, A+D Surfaces. Lighting: Pacific Technical Products. Finishes: EDL Laminates. Fittings & Fixtures: TG Decor, Cheng Meng Furniture.

Photography: Daniel Koh (1, 2 ,3), Darren Soh (4).