Tierra Design wins ASLA Professional Award for Terminal 3 interiors

From the Awards Jury:  “The future of landscapes. The landscape architect created an amazing place that has plants growing where you can’t imagine they can grow. The plant selections are different and wonderful. ”

(Photo: © 2008 Albert K.S. Lim)

via ASLA.org

Bridging between arrival and departure, the landscape architecture presents itself as slivers of green which then rise vertically to connect the horizontal datum of the arrival or departure floors to the vast ceiling, which offers a shower of tropical sunshine through its carpet of louvered skylights.

Arrival at Changi Airport’s Terminal 3 would make any local feel a sense of pride. For visitors, Tierra’s addition only means the official Singaporean welcome begins a moment sooner . Known for its image of pristine cleanliness and ruthless efficiency, Singapore’s usual formal embrace of its visitors, arbor-istically speaking, is during the taxi ride into the city via the lush boulevards of Airport Boulevard and thereafter the East Coast Parkway.

Once inside the terminal, what in a typical, ultra-modern airport would be a hard barrier of cold metal and glass, (security features notwithstanding), is now a soft wall of vegetation. And while there seems to be a lot of vegetation for an airport terminal of this size, one never has a view obscured by plants, only softened and screened by low surface shrubbery or tall, majestic palms. However, there are a few moments which one might be inclined to label cheesy, for example the stone walls at the baggage belts that have ‘welcome’ carved out in several languages, but it is arguable that with age, the spanking clean walls will age gracefully with time. (that personally, despite their good intentions, feel like propaganda billboards)

Far from blending in with the homogeniety of airport terminal design that we all know, Tierra has made SOM’s Terminal 3 a whole new species. Mind the pun.

by J.J. Yeo

see ASLA.org for project details