The Interlace is an award winning megacondo development by local developers CapitaLand and designed by legendary starchitect Rem Koolhaas’s firm, OMA (this project was led by ex-OMA-partner Ole Scheeren, who has since spun off his own firm, Buro-OS).
This massive condominium complex located alongside the Ayer Rajah Expressway in western Singapore is OMA’s first completed building in Singapore (after a false start for the strikingly cantilevered Scotts Tower project, which has since been taken over by UNStudio). Viewed from a distance or while passing by on the expressway, the development is a strikingly iconic tectonic marvel- but how successful is it in terms of space, program, climate, and experience?
Armand Devillard, a talented young French architect living in The Interlace and working on some impressive HDB projects in Singapore, took me on a tour of the massive complex. Sprawling over a hilltop site of over 8 hectares, the Interlace represents an entirely new paradigm for urban vertical development. Rather than following the archetypal high-rise typology of towers arranged across a site, OMA has stacked 31 charming scale (6 storey) apartment blocks in a hexagonal configuration, managing fit over 1000 units into the site without sacrificing ground level space for landscape and recreation areas, and without creating an oppressively dense environment.
As we walked through the development the long-span & cantilevered stacked blocks above delineate a series of 60m wide courtyards. Devillard pointed out that each one has a varied & distinct identity. Some contain playgrounds, some have water bodies for an evaporative cooling effect, while others contain themed gardens. This variation helps to break up the scale of the development, and assist with way-finding.
The blocks are entered through a hexagonal grid of Tschumi-esque follies, round vertical circulation cores punctured through the pivoted intersections of the blocks. The cores are complex as expected, negotiating plans rotated at various angles. Skygardens at various levels represent the tangible benefit of the stacked-block plan. Devillard tells me that the skygardens sheltered by blocks above are publicly accessible by all residents, and private skygardens ‘owned’ by (essentially) high-rise bungalows are open to the sky.
From within the amalgamated stack of architectural forms a breathtaking new experience is revealed: stunning panoramic vistas of the expansive courtyards, dramatic cantilevered overhangs above, compellingly complex tectonic interfaces, horizontal vistas at the undefined development edge bleeding into the surrounding parks, and surreal picture-framed views delineated by what in many places would be considered very large buildings. This is a game of urban-scale Jenga played by giants and it’s stunning.
Walking through the complex towards the end of my visit Armand pointed out the large number of low-floor units which were unoccupied. As an urbanist with one eye on the present and the other on the future, I can’t help but wonder what our cities would be like if we built them like this. The less desirable but highly visible bottom tier could house shops, factories, civic functions. Understandably (and unfortunately) for privacy and exclusivity reasons, The Interlace is a gated community, but this urban/formal exploration begs the question of what this kind of typological approach could mean for new forms of urbanity. The stacked tiers above could be our homes and offices. It’s a utopian vision for the city of the future: employing architectural language enable connectivity at upper levels while leaving plenty of space for circulation and green space at the ground level; especially ideal in the tropics where shaded and sheltered spaces are essential.
This condominium is one of the first high-rise buildings to break from the typological norm for dense development. It has doubtless reserved a page in the history books for paving the way towards the city of the future. Conventional 2D urban planning could be abandoned in favour of multidimensional masterplanning suitable for the complexity and density required of contemporary urbanity.
Images and Video by Jonathan Choe
