Singapore rainforest resort by WOW Architects "creeps through the jungle"

Treehouses resembling seed pods, bark-imprinted walls and a spine-like spiral staircase pay homage to the landscape surrounding Mandai Rainforest Resort in Singapore, completed by local studio WOW Architects.

Overlooking a reservoir in the 126-hectare Mandai Wildlife Reserve, the resort was created for hospitality brand Banyan Tree and is designed to immerse visitors in the surrounding nature.

It was completed by WOW Architects as part of a larger wildlife and nature destination funded by the Singapore government, which also includes the wildlife parks Singapore Zoo, Night Safari and Bird Paradise.

"This development, the Mandai Rainforest Resort, is part of a $3.5 billion SGD (£20 billion) investment to build all the [local] natural attractions," studio co-founder Wong Chiu Man told Dezeen.

"One of the key issues was that the non-profit organisation Nature Society was against development in this area because it was the last remaining patch of green forest in Singapore and there was a lot of biodiversity around this."

To address these concerns and minimise the project's impact on the forest and its biodiversity, WOW Architects designed the hotel in line with national sustainability benchmarks and organised the building to be eventually "reabsorbed within the jungle".

This strategy involved minimising the felling of old trees, preserving existing habitats, integrating a rainwater collection system and passive cooling techniques, as well as cloaking the structure in greenery.

According to the studio, the hotel is the first in Singapore to achieve the country's Green Mark Super Low Energy certification, which is awarded by the Building and Construction Authority to buildings that achieve at least a 60 per cent energy saving compared to the 2005 building code.

Greenery-covered forms make up the hotel's curving six-storey structure, which was designed to wind around the site's largest trees in a way that mimics a vine. Meanwhile, 24 treehouse pods contain rooms elevated within the forest's canopy.

"The shape of the building has no defined shape, because it's like a vine – it creeps through the jungle," Chiu Man explained.

"The building mass [and] the plan do not really have a usual architectural logic to it," he added. "It's simply opportunistic and responsive to the situation."

Concrete used for the structure's exterior was chosen in response to Singapore's humid climate, says Chiu Man, and has been imprinted with the bark of felled trees as a "living memory of the forest".

Steps at the hotel's front lead up to an open-air lobby, where a panelled ceiling is raised on a series of large round columns. Organic forms feature throughout the interior, with wooden furniture nodding to the jungle.

From the lobby, a spiral staircase resembling the "spinal column of a living creature" leads to the hotel's upper floors alongside two elevator shafts and a winding external ramp.

Corridors lined with openings for ventilation lead to the hotel's private rooms, which are spread across three floors and range from 36-square-metre double rooms to 44-square-metre family rooms.

Each room was designed by WOW Architects to have views out towards the surrounding landscape, with glazing across the hotel's north-facing facade overlooking the reservoir.

Meanwhile, situated at the hotel's east and west wings are the series of treehouse pods linked to the main volume by a network of raised walkways.

Raised on columns, the tiled treehouses provide a series of luxury rooms for guests, modelled on a seed pod of a local plant.

Inside, the predominantly wooden pods are arranged around a main ensuite bedroom, which leads out to a sheltered terrace via sliding doors.

Complementing the treehouses are private "pool pods" held within nest-like structures that are oriented at each wing to face sunset and sunrise, as well as Wellness Pods – spikey, wood-clad volumes where spa treatments take place.

A light-filled restaurant and dining area are contained at the basement level, where a gym, spa, meeting rooms and events spaces are also held. Additional spaces for guests include an outdoor pool and private dining area on the rooftop level.

Chiu Man said that the integration of nature into the building seeks to forge stronger relationships between people and their natural environments.

"Education is a big part of what we're trying to do here, so we're trying to change people's mindset about comfort [and] about their place in nature," he said.

As part of this initiative, interactive air-conditioning controls are provided in each room to allow guests to monitor their own energy usage, while an open-air approach to ventilation was adopted throughout the building.

"We want to create dialogue and an awareness that would build towards this concept of the citizen ecologist because all of us have to do our part," Chiu Man said.

Other hotels recently featured on Dezeen include a series of prefabricated containers in California's high desert and a collection of reflective cabins on the site of a 1970s hotel in Oregon.

The photography is courtesy of Banyan Group.

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