Paradise In The Sky

Rising high above Draycott Park is new ultra-luxury condominium Eden, the brainchild of internationally renowned architect Thomas Heatherwick, who speaks to Yanni Tan about how the development is his vision of biophilia and the humanity the urban environment needs now.

- Yanni Tan

Driving into the basement carpark of Eden on an afternoon is like entering a cave – quite unlike the typical Singaporean experience of using the functional grey carparks ubiquitous in our urban jungle. Surprisingly, the air is not stuffy and the brown walls are clad with an undulating texture revealed by slivers of daylight from above.

When I mention this experience during my videocall interview with Thomas Heatherwick, he seems pleased. A carpark would appear an inconsequential amenity to many, but here we are talking to an eminent British architect who dreamt up the magnificent honeycombed Vessel in New York, two massive Google buildings in Mountain View, California, the Olympic Cauldron and a variety of cutting-edge projects in his native London. Also tasked with designing Changi Airport Terminal 5, the man is meanwhile set to unveil the 1000 Trees multi-use complex in Shanghai and the Little Island pier by the Hudson River in New York this year.

Preferring to call himself a designer, Heatherwick is known as a cross-disciplinary maverick who straddles the worlds of art, architecture and engineering. Nature and sculptural, organic forms are signature features of his works – and they are the defining traits of the Eden project that took a team of around 200 experts some five years to realise.

EMBRACING THE OUTDOORS