View PDF - Buro Ole Scheeren

06
April – June 2013
AUD15 BND10 RMB100 HKD80 INR500
IDR85,000 JPY800 KRW10,000 MYR20 NZD20
PESOS300 SGD8 TWD300 BAHT250 VND100,000
8 885007 530086
KOH SAMUI VILLAS
SYDNEY PENTHOUSES
ICON RESIDENCE, MONT’ KIARA | RESIDENCES BY YOO
OLE SCHEEREN’S PROVOCATIVE ARCHITECTURE
LOUIS VUITTON
TRAVEL FURNITURE
MAISON&OBJET HIGHLIGHTS | CULINARY ARCHITECTURE
CHÂTEAU DE VARENNES | CARBON FIBRE DESIGNS

palace RESIDENCE
SPACE
PROVOCAT E UR
A German-born architect challenges
social space in Asia
24 PALACE

OLE SCHEEREN
by Sian Jay
LEFT
Architect Ole Scheeren's belief that
buildings must relate to one another
and to their context is reflected in his
design for DUO
RIGHT
Scheeren moved from Europe to Asia
after designing several buildings here
for architectural firm OMA
Image by Doug Bruce
When he was young, Ole Scheeren swore he
would never become an architect. “There was
always this idea that you should never do what your father’s
doing,” he says. But in the end, having gained a firm
knowledge base about architecture, as well as a fascination
with social space, Scheeren pursued the profession.
It has since brought him to many places, and is the reason
he “wasn’t afraid to break down my entire European existence
and move to China”. Formerly director and partner to
Rem Koolhaas at Rotterdam-based Office for Metropolitan
Architecture (OMA), Scheeren is known for daring designs
that radically change cities’ skylines — for instance, the
CCTV building in Beijing (in partnership with Koolhaas),
MahaNakhon in Bangkok and The Interlace in Singapore. >>
PALACE
25

palace RESIDENCE
Scheeren sees DUO's
structures as having
a kinetic relationship
to each other, "almost
like dancing towers"
OPPOSITE FROM TOP
Archipelago Cinema
by Scheeren in Venice,
Italy
Image by Alejandro Falceto Palacin
Archipelago Cinema
by Scheeren in Phuket,
Thailand
Image by Piyatat Hemmatat
26 PALACE

“The new is always, to a certain extent, provocative.
So it would be disconcerting if nobody would be at
all disturbed by the work I’ve been doing”
>> In 2010 he left OMA and moved to Beijing, where he set
up his own studio, Büro-OS, in collaboration with Eric Chang,
whom he had worked with for some time. It is under that
name that Scheeren recently designed DUO, an integrated
office, residence, hotel and retail space in Singapore. The
project is a collaboration between Khazanah Nasional and
Temasek Holdings, and it was this joint venture between a
Malaysian and a Singaporean company that helped Scheeren
define the parameters of the commission.
Scheeren came to perceive the project as symbolically
expressing the nature of the two cooperating countries
which “are very close, but not exactly the same”. He saw
duo not as a singular entity, but as “the symbolic fusion
of two things”, and became interested in how DUO’s twin
buildings would interact with each other and with their
immediate environment.
DUO, when built by 2017, will rise between the low-rise
buildings of historic Kampong Glam and the busier Bugis
commercial area. Its design of two towers, comprising a series
of stacked concave and convex volumes and cubes that slide
away from each other at different heights, was partially defined
by zoning laws. It offered Scheeren the opportunity to create
“something as delicate as possible that minimises its impact
to things, yet at the same time starts to engage things around
it”. He noticed that while many of the buildings in the area
have great individual merit, “there is very little relationship
between each building, [which] cares only about itself and not
about what is around”. This, too, helped define the form and
structure of DUO. >>
PALACE
27

palace RESIDENCE
>> Scheeren’s design emphasises public use of the space
around the buildings. To engage the community, DUO will
lift traffic off the ground, which will be freed up for gardens,
retail and food outlets in small units, reflecting the scale of the
shophouses in neighbouring Kampong Glam. “I like to think
of this project as a civic nucleus — a space not only of civic
scale, but also of civic importance,” says Scheeren.
To achieve his vision, Scheeren prefers to work with models
rather than a computer, which may otherwise lead to the
homogeneity of “horizontal striping”. To avoid this, he designed
a hexagonal pattern of sunshades that improve DUO’s energy
efficiency while lending texture to the façade. “As you move
around the buildings you can see how different the façades
are. It’s almost like dancing towers; there’s this very kinetic,
very dynamic relationship between them,” he explains.
If DUO’s context-based design seems like a rebellion
against self-referential buildings, it is no accident. The same
can be said of Scheeren’s other projects — creating interaction
through horizontal stacking to counter the isolation caused
by vertical towers; disrupting a skyline of smooth steel and
glass with a cut-away, pixelated condominium façade.
He is interested in how
DUO’s twin buildings
would interact with
each other and with their
immediate environment
“I think the new is always, to a certain extent, provocative.
So it would be disconcerting if nobody would be at all
disturbed by [the work I’ve been doing] because that would
be proof of the fact that what I have done is not new at all,”
says Scheeren. He believes that architecture can help
stimulate discussions and “make people think about what
things are or should be”. He adds: “While each project is a
momentary statement or commitment you make to a certain
position, I think the work itself is something that, hopefully,
will keep on evolving. And I think that all work that stops
evolving stops being interesting.”
28 PALACE

Scheeren hopes to invite the
community into the building's
public areas, such as its garden
and retail area
PALACE
29