Condos-On-Columns The In Thing In S'pore

Sources : The Business Times, July 19, 2007

Soleil@Sinaran is latest in new trend for high-rises that enhances privacy

THE upcoming Frasers Centrepoint Homes condo Soleil@Sinaran is the latest to reflect the trend for soaring buildings raised high on columns.

Architects 61, which also designed The Cosmopolitan in the River Valley area, said that by elevating the 417-unit Soleil@Sinaran, 'the privacy of the units is enhanced to greater heights'.

Bigger landscape: For Soleil@Sinaran, Frasers Centrepoint Homes' upcoming condo, raising the building has allowed to free more space for landscaping







Considerations in the design of Soleil@Sinaran included a high plot ratio of 3.5, a height restriction of about 40 storeys and high-density living.

The architects also felt that adjacent mid-rise private flats and Novena Square commercial development had large footprints and, therefore, views were minimised.

Architects 61 said: 'Privacy of the lowest level of units is further enhanced by locating it as high from the ground as possible.'

Like The Cosmopolitan - and many other new condominiums - Soleil@Sinaran will rise from above street level.

But will columns be the only thing visible from street level?

Asked about the impact on the streetscape from buildings raised on columns, the Urban Redevelopment Authority said: 'Generally, in certain areas within the city centre, urban design guidelines are put in place where the context requires buildings to relate to the street and their surrounding developments.

'In the case of The Cosmopolitan, it is located in a residential area where the relation of the building to the street is not as critical. Hence the guidelines do not specifically require the building to do so.'

For Soleil@Sinaran, raising the building has allowed Architects 61 to free more space for landscaping that will include lagoons, pool lounges, entertainment pavilions with spa alcoves and spa pavilions to create a 'green podium'.

'The landscaping extends into the depth of the tower footprint,' the architects said. 'Trees grown within the covered first-

storey terrace provide a human scale to the tower rising above, 'dissolving' the boundary between the inside and the outside. It is this landscaped podium that provides the human scale at street level.'

Soleil@Sinaran is expected to be launched mid-August. Prices have not be fixed yet.