HOTEL REVIEW


Leading a team of interior designers, with contributions from firms such as CL3, Rockwell Group and Hirsch Bedner, acclaimed architect Moshe Safdie has conceived an iconic structure that will surely come to define modern Singapore.


Marina Bay Sands Singapore


Words: Neena Dhillon Photography: Images courtesy of Timothy Hursley © “N


o other single destination offers so many diverse attractions under one


roof,” says Thomas Arasi, Marina Bay Sands’ President and CEO, in response to Sleeper’s question about the elements that distinguish this integrated resort in Singapore. “Where else can you find the Sands SkyPark, perched 170 metres above sea level with the largest outdoor pool at that height, seven celebrity chef restaurants, The Lion King, Asia’s largest


ballroom and Singapore’s biggest hotel, including 230 suites offering personalised butler service?” It’s a fair reply that provides an introductory


overview of some of the facilities comprising this US$5.7 billion development. Situated on 15.5 hectares of reclaimed land that forms the heart of new downtown Singapore, across the bay from the Central Business District, Marina Bay Sands is the vision of Las Vegas Sands Corporation in combination with design architect Moshe Safdie, who has artfully merged a complex programme of business, leisure and public activities. Since officially opening in June 2010, the


resort has had a transformative effect on the city’s skyline. Three 55-storey reflective glass-clad towers project majestically into the air, anchoring this young urban district and supporting the 2.5 acre, aerodynamic SkyPark that crowns the structure, which appears to float in the air as it cantilevers


058 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2011 WWW.SLEEPERMAGAZINE.COM


66.5 metres beyond the hotel towers below. But while the exterior is attention-grabbing, for Safdie, who was asked to design over 800,000m2


of hotel, meeting, entertainment


and shopping space, the real challenge has been to reconcile the issue of mega scale with human scale. “As with all my work, I began by taking in the location, culture and people, asking what needs this structure could fulfil and how it could be a natural extension of the environment,” he tells Sleeper. “The first consideration was how to create a thriving, urban place that would weave together different components with a vitality that we associate with great cities, both historic and contemporary.”


Looking to classical blueprints of Greek and Roman cities as well as Chinese cities, Safdie considered the role of the street or public thoroughfare, in combination with the piazza, galleria and courtyard, as a focus of civic life. For Marina Bay Sands, he has explored


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