Singapore’s CapitaLand builds a much grander version of Marina Bay Sands in China
Raffles City Chongqing, designed by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, is developed by Singapore’s own CapitaLand, whose president and group CEO calls it the “largest and most complex integrated development” ever undertaken by the real estate company by far. The project will hold a shopping mall, residences, offices and a hotel.
Complicated, indeed. The megastructure consists of four 250m-tall skyscrapers topped with a 300m-long curved horizontal sky bridge, which will feature an outdoor patio with see-through glass flooring as a viewing deck. The enclosed structure — longer than Singapore’s tallest building laid on its side — will also have swimming pools, sky gardens, and dining facilities.
If all this sounds familiar, it should be. Raffles City Chongqing is what happens when someone one-ups Marina Bay Sands by taking the original concept wholesale and adding more parts to it. CapitaLand’s description about their development says nothing about the similarities to MBS but noted that Safdie drew inspiration from Chongqing’s “thousand years of waterway transportation culture” to create “an image of powerful sails upon the river”. To be fair, Safdie did design MBS after all, so he’s at liberty to replicate the same thing somewhere else. The construction is expected to be completed by the middle of 2018, and will open in phases next year.
The building is designed by Safdie Architects, who also designed MBS
Don't be surprised if you see a familiar Singapore icon while wandering around the city of Chongqing, China. On Feb. 25, CapitaLand announced in a media release that it had completed the "topping out" of the eighth and final skyscraper of Raffles City Chongqing.
The result looks very much like our own Marina Bay Sands (MBS) due to its "accordion-shaped" curved pathway on high. It has also achieved the structural completion of the 250m-high skybridge, previously referred to as the Conservatory, but now rebranded as The Crystal. The Crystal sits on top of four skyscrapers and links to the two taller skyscrapers in front, therefore connecting six skyscrapers into a megastructure.
According to CapitaLand, The Crystal will feature the highest viewing gallery in Western China, with the skybridge itself the world's highest linking together the most number of towers. Visitors will get to enjoy other amenities like, gardens, an infinity pool and restaurants within The Crystal itself. And in another similarity to our own MBS, The Crystal will transform into a "giant light beam" at night, illuminating the night sky of Chongqing with a light show.
China is building a 1,000-foot-long 'sidescraper' in the sky - may reveal a troubling trend. Safdie Architects
As urban populations grow, cities have experienced a boom in megadevelopments. In Chongqing, China, one of the city's latest and largest megaprojects is Raffles City, an under-construction development with eight skyscrapers, plus a horizontal ninth tower that Curbed has dubbed a "sidescraper."
Resembling a tube, the roughly 1,000-foot-long building includes a swimming pool, an observatory deck, and retail space lying across four other skyscrapers. The complex is set to be complete by 2020.
The development is part of a larger trend. In the past several years, cities across the world have built fancy megaprojects, mainly aimed at the wealthy. But these types of luxury developments can take the place of affordable housing, especially in overcrowded cities. As the Urban Institute notes, developers see big returns from large, high-priced projects, giving them little incentive to build more equitable, lower-priced housing.
Is Chongqing's 'horizontal skyscraper' the answer to overcrowded cities?
An artist’s render of Raffles City Chongqing, which will have the world’s highest skybridge linking the most towers. Photograph: Courtesy Safdie Architects
An army of 6,000 construction workers is hard at work at a large site overlooking the conflux of the Yangtze and Jialing rivers in the south-western Chinese megacity of Chongqing. Eight skyscrapers are rising from the river banks: two above 350m and six above 250m.
Raffles City Chongqing, a project headed by the architect Moshe Safdie, will boast 134,000 sq m of homes, shops, offices, entertainment, transportation links and a public park. It also features a more unusual claim to fame: a “horizontal skyscraper” 300m in length, stretching across four of the main towers at the 42nd floor. With the building situated in an earthquake zone, it “floats” on top of the towers to accommodate the necessary sway.
No landmark development in China is complete without a world record, and Raffles City Chongqing has the highest skybridge linking the most towers. With an adjacent pair of towers connected by smaller skybridges, workers and residents can move around the eight-tower development without needing to return to ground level. “It’s going to become like the heartbeat of the city,” says Safdie of what he describes as his most complex project to date. “In these dense cities like Chongqing there’s no room for big public parks [on the ground], so we have to lift them into the sky.”
Raffles City Chongqing
Inherently site-specific, the design for Raffles City Chongqing celebrates the city’s history and unique character while accommodating its mountainous landscape and extreme climate
Raffles City Chongqing brings new life to historic Chaotianmen Square. Exploring new approaches to urban design, the monumental 3D city and integrated complex, acts as a catalyst for downtown regeneration, creating a new icon for Chongqing, a megacity in western China.
Sitting at the confluence of China’s two major rivers, the Yangtze and Jialing, Raffles City Chongqing has become a new symbol for the city, with its design recalling the site’s historic role as an imperial city gate and maritime trading post. The project continues the firm’s exploration of vertical neighborhoods, livable urban communities, and thoughtfully connected public spaces.
Embedded within the city’s densely developed grid, Raffles City Chongqing—which combines office, residential, hotel, serviced apartments, retail, and recreational facilities—has sparked revitalization around its waterfront site. Located at the heart of one of the world’s fastest growing cities in an area with limited public parks, the development provides over 30,000 sq. m. of public space including outdoor and community gathering spaces. The development integrates multiple access points aligned with the city’s undulating topography, an innovative traffic diversion system, and a new public walkway that cuts through the five levels of the retail mall to provide a direct connection between the podium park and Chaotianmen Square.
The Unknown Mega-CIties In China 中国未知的特大城市
As of June 2020 the PRC has a total of 687 cities: 4 municipalities, 2 SARs, 293 prefectural-level cities (including the 15 sub-provincial cities) and 388 county-level cities (including the 38 sub-prefectural cities and 10 XXPC cities).
Here are some of the cities you have never heard of:
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The "Singapore" of Medan, Indonesia
A video of a neighbourhood in Indonesia has made the rounds lately due to some unusual features, including a merlion and Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) gantries.
The residential area is called the “Singapore of Medan”, and can be seen in this video from 2020. Singaporeans will definitely find some familiar sights. Whoever thought of the neighbourhood’s design must be a huge fan of the Little Red Dot.
The developer of the residence is CitraLand Gama City (which explains the CLGC on the gantry), and it will occupy 211.57 hectares of land, including a shopping district called—you guessed it, Orchard Road. In response, Singaporean netizens appear to be having a lot of fun with the “Singapore of Medan.”
Singapore's Lau Pa Sat, Indonesia
A food centre similar to Singapore's famous Lau Pa Sat is set to open in Indonesia. The food centre will reportedly have over 50 stalls and its own Satay Street, when it is ready in 2025.
The food centre is part of a mixed development named "Rukan Lau Pa Sat" situated in the up-and-coming Pantai Indah Kapuk (PIK2) township. PIK2 has been dubbed "The New Jakarta City" and is located in the northern part of Indonesia's capital, Jakarta. It is a joint venture between property developer Agung Sedayu Group and Salim Group, Indonesia's biggest conglomerate.
Agung Sedayu Group will be recreating Lau Pa Sat's colonial-themed architecture and orange roofing for the food centre in PIK2. Stalls at the food centre will mostly serve Indonesian cuisine, as well as food from the region, The Straits Times (ST) reported. There will also be different types of sate from different parts of Indonesia because people love to "have satay and chill", Agung Sedayu Group chief executive Steven Kusumo told ST.
