Treehouse

Client’s Brief

For close to two decades now, City Developments Limited (CDL) have been firmly committed to green buildings and sustainable development, and this is done through applying technology and innovation throughout the building cycle – from conceptualisation, to construction, to maintenance – to reduce our carbon footprint.

CDL aims to maintain leadership as a green developer and to improve further in how to build sustainably. In general, CDL invests between 2% and 5% of a development’s construction cost in green innovation. CDL continually offer consumers the best eco-friendly solutions and designs, where applicable and practical, and deliver high quality developments for customers.

In Tree House, nature and the surrounding greenery served as key inspirations for the conceptualisation of the development. Located next to the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, residents can enjoy breathtaking views of the reserve, as well as of the Upper Peirce Reservoir. The development was designed with sustainability as a key consideration, in line with CDL’s business ethos to “Conserve as we Construct”.

Planning Around Biodiversity

Tree House is an architectural creation inspired not only by its surroundings, which is largely a green oasis, but also by Biomimicry, innovation inspired by nature. The concept for the development of Tree House seeks to reinforce this condition; to sync with its natural environs and offer the same within the built environment. Site planning embraces the native ecosystem by studying existing biodiversity and climatic conditions. Biodiversity Impact Assessment (BIA) was carried out to ensure continuity of the original ecosystem, vertical greenery and generous landscaping is expressed throughout the development.

Bio-Shield

The architects observed nature’s models and took inspiration from these designs and processes to solve human problems. For instance, a solar cell inspired by a leaf, or a bio-shield inspired by plant structure for the cooling of living environment. The magnificent and majestic 24-storey high Green Wall in Tree House was designed as a “vertical” continuity of greenery from adjacent “horizontal” green surroundings and it also functions as a Bio-shield to maximize green lungs and reduce solar radiation and cooling load. The Bio-shield is approximately 24 stories high (78m) and 20m wide.

Complementing the nature-inspired architecture are 3 layers of green sky gardens on the 7th, 13th & 19th floors of each block with green creepers clinched on the circular support. These act as vantage points and additional vertical green lungs for residents. The extensive cantilever of sky gardens maximizes greenery and provides shade for the internal spaces in Tree House.

Tree House, an eco-inspired residential development, has set new sustainability benchmarks and defined a new era of living harmoniously with nature in a densely built-up urban environment like Singapore.

Sensitivity to Context

The site planning was also guided by extensive studies that included a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) study. The CFD study was carried out by generating simulations of macro air flow in response to the site’s climatic conditions to create the most optimized building orientation for ventilation and thermal comfort.