Update 3 Dec 2024: NTU’s Gaia, Changi Airport T2 among top winners of global Unesco architecture prizes
Gaia bagged the top prize under the world’s most beautiful campuses category, while Changi Airport T2 received the special prize for its interior
The Nanyang Technological University’s (NTU) Gaia, the largest wooden building in Asia, bagged the top Unesco prize for architecture and design under the world’s most beautiful campuses category on Dec 2.
Changi Airport Terminal 2 also won the special prize for its interior at the series of competitions known as Prix Versailles World Architecture and Design Award 2024, under the world’s most beautiful airports category. This award is one of the top three world titles – namely the top Prix Versailles prize and separate special prizes for interior and exterior – that finalists in each category competed for.
The Prix Versailles is an international series of architectural awards that celebrate contemporary projects worldwide by recognising innovation, creativity, reflections of local heritage, sustainability and design.
Gaia, the largest wooden building in Asia
NTU Singapore, has officially launched its eighth zero energy building on Wednesday (17 May 2023), adding to its list of green developments as part of the university’s commitment to sustainability.
Named Gaia after the Greek goddess of Earth, the 6-storey development is the largest wooden building in Asia, and is a space for learning, research and innovation, where NTU students, faculty and staff can meet and connect to uncover new opportunities for collaboration and discovery.
Gaia is the eighth building project (Project’s architect, Toyo Ito) on the NTU campus that has received the Green Mark Platinum (Zero Energy) – the highest award issued by the Building and Construction Authority of Singapore to recognise buildings that consume as much energy as they produce. Presently, there are 16 certified zero energy buildings in the country, of which half are located on NTU grounds. This makes NTU the greenest campus in Singapore.
Gaia: Asia’s largest wooden building sets new sustainable standard in Singapore
Singapore is now home to the largest wooden building in Asia.
Named after the Greek goddess of Earth, Gaia is a 6-story structure inside the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Students and the Nanyang Business School faculty will use the 43,500m square-meter facility.
As per the press release, Gaia is the eighth such project taken up by the university in its bid to install zero-energy structures to support sustainability. The building was also conferred with the Green Mark Platinum (Zero Energy), the highest award issued by Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority, to recognize buildings that consume as much energy as they produce.
The project’s architect, Toyo Ito, used renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies like mass-engineered timber (MET), which is growing in popularity in Singapore. It is a state-of-the-art process involving gluing, nailing, or doweling wooden products together in layers resulting in large structural panels. It is environmentally friendly, durable, and fire-resistant.
NTU's S$125 million sustainable wooden building growing mould
Mould is growing on the walls of the Gaia building in Nanyang Technological University (NTU), raising concerns among students and staff members who occupy the building. Gaia is Asia's largest wooden building and is made almost entirely from mass timber. Yet the timber structure of the building also means mould can grow and fester, a problem that companies across the world are all facing, reported Bloomberg.
The Gaia building, which houses Nanyang Business School, is NTU's eighth zero-energy building. Launched on May 17, 2023, the Gaia building's sustainably harvested timber beams and panels act as a natural insulator that traps less heat than concrete ones, according to the university's website. Not only that, the wooden structure of Gaia stores more than 4,535 tonnes of carbon dioxide, after accounting for shipping, reported Bloomberg. Trees absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, and that carbon remains sequestered when the wood is used in construction. However, the sustainable building may contain a little more than just carbon dioxide. When mould inspector Joey Feng examined the pillars and air vents of the university, she advised the room to be treated immediately. Concerns have also sparked among students and staff about the mould, with fourth-year student Grace Ng telling Bloomberg that the mould made her feel "a little grossed out".
Another student Lifei Shan told the news agency that he's concerned about the health problems the mould may cause people, while another staff member said he avoids his office as he's afraid the mould will aggravate respiratory issues. When Mothership visited the site on Aug. 19, the mould was most apparent from floors four to six, with floors one to three having little to no sightings of mould. The wooden pillars on the exterior of the building also appeared to have signs of moulding.
Welcome to Gaia
Asia’s largest wooden building is the new home of NBS
Spanning 468,000 square feet, Gaia proudly claims the title of Asia's largest wooden building. On 17 May 2023, we officially launched Gaia, named after the ancient Greek goddess of the Earth, in a ceremony at Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, led by Minister of Education Mr Chan Chun Sing. This remarkable addition marks NTU's 8th zero-energy building.
Gaia is made almost entirely from mass timber — a new generation of engineered wood, arranged in layers and bonded with strong adhesives, pushing the boundaries of architecture. Japanese architect, Toyo Ito, who designed Gaia, said, “I always try to envision a connection with – and a feeling of – nature, such as trees and water, in my designs.” Connecting people to the natural surroundings is what he did. The gently curved design features sunlit atriums, open-air study areas set against lush backdrops and elevators that descend into beds of tropical plants. Everything from handrails to benches, door frames to room dividers (and even an adjoining bus stop), were built using wood.
Timber is a natural insulator that, in warm places like Singapore, traps less heat than concrete ones. The breezy building’s north-south orientation encourages natural ventilation by aligning with the direction of prevailing winds. Fins are strategically placed on the building’s exterior to cast shade over the facade, helping to keep it cool. Large mechanical fans are strategically positioned throughout the building for air circulation. The air conditioning system utilises “passive cooling” which pushes cold water through coils to chill the surrounding air.
Inside Gaia, Asia’s largest wooden building in NTU
Rewind back to August 2018. NTU had just unveiled its most ambitious sustainable construction yet – codenamed Academic Building South. We saw the artist’s impressions and read the specs. We knew it was big and bold. And now, we know it is beautiful.
Of course, it’s hardly been a secret. You’ve seen it from the outside as it has taken shape. You might even have voted when we polled for a name for the building. Recently, you’ve seen it from the inside too as you walked through it to get from The Hive to the (similarly wood-themed) bus stop. But oh boy, you’ve seen nothing yet. Gaia, named after the Greek goddess of the Earth, is the largest building made from mass-engineered timber in Asia, and the second such building on campus after The Wave, NTU’s sports complex. Gaia’s timber composition and how it was fabricated give it a much lower carbon footprint than traditional concrete buildings.
Gaia stands on the site of the former Innovation Centre. But not all is lost because as a sustainable university, we have salvaged some of its bricks and used them in creating many of the walls here. In a retro nod to Gaia’s past, the exposed bricks make a great backdrop for an #ootd shot.
Singapore’s NTU Gaia building: S$125m timber wonderland or mouldy mess?
Gaia building at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, which debuted in May 2023 as Asia’s largest wooden marvel
The S$125 million (RM421 million) Gaia building at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, which debuted in May 2023 as Asia’s largest wooden marvel, was celebrated as both a green and gorgeous timber wonderland.
However, just over a year later, this 450,000-square-foot structure, built with sustainable timber beams and panels, is facing an unexpected challenge: mould growth on the wood. According to Bloomberg, Gaia’s mould issue highlights the global challenges timber structures can face. Even as companies like Walmart and Microsoft champion wood for sustainable building, mouldy timber has led to health concerns, damage, and legal disputes from London to Melbourne.
Yet, what seemed like a promising eco-friendly solution has encountered a reality check in tropical Singapore, where the city experiences rain on approximately 180 days each year.
Singapore's Iconic Buildings & Landmarks
Capitol Theatre
Capitol Theatre, briefly Kyo-Ei Gekijo, is a historic cinema and theatre located in Singapore. It was adjoined to four-storey building known as the Capitol Building. The Capitol Theatre was considered one of Singapore's finest theatres in the 1930s during that time.
In 1929, Mirza Mohamed Ali Namazie, a Persian businessman of the Namazie family, commissioned the theatre to be built in Singapore, with S. A. H. Shirazee, an Indian-Muslim merchant and community leader, and the South African brothers Joe and Julius Fisher from First National Pictures, joined in to form Capitol Theatres Ltd as its operator. Namazie would serve as the theatre company's chairman with Shirazee as director, Joe Fisher as managing director and his brother Julius Fisher as the publicity manager. Architecture and equipments
Joe Fisher travelled overseas to acquire the materials for the theatre's furnishings, decorations and design. The Capitol Theatre was designed neoclassical architecture by British architects Keys and Dowdeswell, with its general plan, seating arrangements and lighting inspired from the Roxy Theatre in New York, United States. Builders Messrs Brossard and Mopin began construction of the foundation around July 1929. Messrs Sherwin-Williams Paint Co. in collaboration with local partner Messrs Lohmann and Co., designed the theatre's walls' and ceilings' detailing. Although installed with ventilation system, the theatre's roof was able to slide open which leave a 40-foot aperture for more ventilation.
The first layout of the theatre could accommodate at least 1,600 people, with 1,100 seated on the ground floor. Another 500 seats were available at the circle that could be accessed via lifts or staircases. The seats were a few inches wider than normal British cinema seats, and the upholstery was supplied by a New York company. The theatre had a large projection room located below the balcony and ran the length of the building instead of being traditionally sited in the rear. It housed the latest Simplex projector installed with fireproof protection shutters. The theatre's acoustics and soundproofing were said to be exceptional at that time. Special expensive sound installations costing at least 40,000 Straits dollars were imported from Western Electric Company. The theatre's stage was also designed for stage productions, with changing rooms and organ chambers built into the theatre. It was also the first to equip multihued lighting system using concealed lamps with a dimmer function, which was never used in other existing theatres in Singapore at that time. Besides having the floodlit main entrance at the junction of Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, there are also two side entrances from Stamford Road and North Bridge Road, with a parking lot to accommodate at least 200 cars. There were several food outlets at the theatre. The main café on the first floor had a dance floor where cabaret was held at the selected nights, and adjoining the café was a restaurant known as the Capitol Restaurant. A café lounge was located at the circle. A special cooling room for making French pastries was built in the kitchen on the ground floor. Its adjoined building known as Namazie Mansions, which was named after the Chairman Namazie, was completed in the early 1930.
