Singapore

Orchard Boulevard Station

Client

Land Transport Authority (LTA)

Location

Singapore

Status

Completed in 2022

Orchard Boulevard Station is part of Singapore's Thomson-East Coast Line (TEL). It is located underground within a future development sale site, at the junction of two of Singapore’s prime residential addresses, Orchard Boulevard and Grange Road. The station is surrounded by high-rise private homes, with Camden Medical Centre and Singapore Tourism Board located directly opposite.

Orchard Boulevard Station’s design is an innovative outcome of the brief’s conflicting demands of ventilating and bringing daylight into the concourse and platform levels of a deep underground station, while working within a tight site, minimising its footprint at ground level for the future development that will be built next to it. The solution was to integrate the station’s main entrance with its ventilation shafts, cooling towers, and skylights, stacking them directly over the station box. This gesture is expressed in the height above main entrance which allows triple storey volume and blank wall created by the shafts to be used as a backdrop for installation artwork within the station. Each station entrance uses materials such as aluminium, granite, and glass, deliberately referencing the tall, sleek towers in the immediate vicinity.

The design brings delight to both commuters and visitors, with the skylights providing natural light and glimpses of the platform activity occurring several metres underground. Here, commuters take in a visually rich and stimulating journey while ascending towards ground level or descending into the station box. Over the course of a day, the sunlight coming through the skylights animates various surfaces sections of the installation artwork and the shaft walls differently, as the sun moves across the sky. From the main entrance, a performance of flurried activity occurs with every arrival and departure of trains and commuters – framed by and viewed through the skylights.

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