ibis Styles Singapore On Macpherson

The design brief for ibis Styles Singapore On Macpherson was to increase the hotel room keys without intervening with the existing structure and by retaining the existing footprint of the hotel. This was done by squeezing the room types, as well as revamping the podium and converting it into a shopping mall.

Built in the 1970s, the former Windsor Hotel underwent its fair share of changes and renovations that did little to engage its surroundings and the community. Located at the prominent intersection of MacPherson and Aljunied Roads, the hotel anchors the MacPherson Industrial Estate and landed residential estate. Above the existing three-storey introverted and opaque shopping podium was a six-storey 200-key hotel, with an inefficient H-shaped plan on a 7.2-metre grid with two room bays per grid. The designers were presented with the challenging task of making this property relevant, with a fresh lease on life. For the project to be economically viable for international operators, the hotel had to be reconfigured to increase the room count to 300 keys.

OVERCOMING CONSTRAINTS
Rebuilding was an obvious option, but an A&A to the existing building was an overall leaner solution with a shorter execution period. However, this meant that the increase in the hotel rooms had to be done within the same footprint with the constraints of the existing structure, since the three-storey podium floor areas needed to be fully used for strata shops. This resulted in a narrow room bay of 2.8 metres, which was incompatible with the structural grid, creating many different small room layouts and situations where existing columns appear in the rooms. This challenge was overcome by making the hotel guest rooms open plan and with a system of multifunctional modular furniture adaptable to all 28 room configurations.

The new ground level frontage is more welcoming and accessible to the public with a large entrance, F&B spaces and more porous pedestrian connections to the external walkways. The façade was designed as a porous veil stretched over the existing building. Openings were created for views and entrances, with a large opening on the fourth level to frame the lush pool garden terrace.

MATERIALS
The building was cladded to make it more of a monolith. Perforated aluminium cladding was used because it is lightweight and so does not impose additional load on the existing structure. JOE Green precast concrete panels were used for new partitions to comply with buildability as well as reduce loading impact on the existing structure. The patterns on the organic modular screens of the façade were also created parametrically using Rhino software to achieve a cloud-like pattern.

PROJECT DATA
Project Name: ibis Styles Singapore On Macpherson
Location: 401 Macpherson Road, Singapore
Completion Date: April 2016
Project Site Area: 5,055.6 square metres
Gross Floor Area: 14,204.19 square metres
Building Height: 9 storeys (3-storey shopping podium and 6-storey hotel)
Number of Rooms: 300 keys (hotel)
Owners: Lian Huat Group; Nobel Design Holdings; 2E Capital
Hotel Operator: AccorHotels
General Manager: Shamila Rolfe
Architecture Firm: A D Lab Pte Ltd
Principal Architect: Warren Liu Yaw Lin
Project Architects: Luke Lim; Najeeb Rahmat; Yenny Kusuma; U Yenlee; Tracy Tan; Wu Yanling; Emerson Gonzales; Lito Garcia; Anna May Manrique
Interior Design Firm: A D Lab Pte Ltd
Civil & Structural Engineer: CMP Consultants Pte Ltd
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: PCA Consulting Engineers
Quantity Surveyor: JIA Quantity Surveyors & Project Managers Pte Ltd
Main Builder & Interior Fit-Out Contractor: Shanghai Chong Kee Furniture & Construction Pte Ltd
Images: Masano Kawana; Vernon Leow; ibis Styles Singapore on Macpherson