Sited within Singapore’s cultural district, 30 Hill Street responds to the city’s year-round sunny weather with contextually sensitive shading techniques.
The 30 Hill Street office building is situated on a site previously occupied by the United States Embassy. The design was conceived as a response to two major factors: the immediate urban context and the desire to preserve open views while protecting the interiors from the intensity of the equatorial sun.
To the south, the building faces the lush garden of a nineteenth-century Armenian Orthodox church. An expansive glass façade opens towards the garden and serves as a clean backdrop against which the white stucco details of the church silhouette can be appreciated. In contrast, the east, west, and north façades respond to urban streetscapes—including the historical shop-house façades on the north side—with opaque materials such as aluminum and Jerusalem limestone.
In order to protect the building from the low sun angles of the east and west, deep vertical fins are employed as brise-soleils. On the north and south façades, high-performance glass and blind systems limit the penetration of vertical sunlight. Thus, the composition of the building as a series of planes running east to west supports not only an appropriate urban response, but also an effective environmental strategy.
