Singapore's CapitaSpring tower captures top honors as the 2024/25 International High-Rise Award winner

BIG and Carlo Ratti Associati have emerged on top in the annual competition to be named the winner of the International High-Rise Award for 2024/25. Their design for the mixed-use CapitaSpring tower in Singapore was selected over four other finalists. 3XN's founding partner, Kim Herforth Nielsen, led the jury as chair along with ten other colleagues from Germany and the UK.

The 51-story, 919-foot tower was completed in September 2022. What is now the second-tallest building in Singapore sits in the heart of the city's Central Business District, using an elaborate vertical sky garden and culturally considerate inclusions such as a hawker center food court to enable a better user experience for workers inside what its developer says is a "new benchmark for the office of the future."

Eight lower floors are reserved for the residential program, emerging from a three-level podium. Following this in the stacked program is a four-level "Green Oasis" core with open-air gardens. The next 29 floors of the tower are reserved for office functions. Finally, at the building’s crown, a rooftop garden with the city’s tallest urban farm completes the rich tropical biophilic program with the full operational capacity to serve the building's restaurants their desired seasonal greens.

"When we were first invited to join the architectural competition, we saw a unique opportunity to team up and join forces with BIG to achieve a bold result together," Ratti commented. "Several years later, we take particular pride in how the project has shaped new kinds of public spaces, creating a rich experience for all users through the integration of technology and green elements. We hope this recognition inspires further investigation into the convergence between nature and architecture in our cities."

BIG's Partner in Charge for the project, Brian Yang, added his commentary, saying: "As someone of Singaporean heritage, I have been honored and humbled by the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing evolution of architecture in Singapore as a distinct blend of the contemporary and the tropical."

Bjarke Ingels stated finally: "Today with CapitaSpring we have set out to explore the high-rise as a vertical extension of a uniquely Singaporean form of tropical urbanism. By wresting the vertical lines of the façade apart, the tower opens up for access and views between inside and outside, turning the traditional pinstripe of the classic curtainwall into something more engaging, inviting, and accessible. A simple gesture that fundamentally reimagines the social role of a skyscraper."

His firm had previously won the 2016/17 IHRA contest for their work on VIA 57 West in Manhattan. The other finalists for the 2024/24 IHRA contest were BIG’s IQON Residences in Quito, Ecuador; the Shenzhen Women & Children’s Center from MVRDV; MVRDV’s Valley housing development in Amsterdam; and the Bunker Tower in Eindhoven, Netherlands, from Powerhouse Company. The winner of the IHRA takes home a €50,000 ($53,000 USD) prize and statuette created by internationally renowned artist Thomas Demand.