With the opening of Singapore’s Fusionopolis complex, its extraordinary egg-shaped Genexis theatre has attracted not only rave reviews but also huge crowds.
Given the theatre’s unusual suspended position and shape, ensuring the safety of patrons in case of emergency was an uppermost consideration for the designers, who called in the global leader in fire services from engineering and design consultancy Arup.
Arup’s fire engineers worked behind the scenes to find evacuation routes and other emergency precautions.
Remarkably, although the unusual theatre presented a fire engineering challenge, Arup’s practical solution in no way compromised the concept’s integrity. The Arup solution called for minor changes to the linking sky bridge’s inner and outer walls, along with emergency protocols that would prioritise the theatre’s occupants.
“Theatre patrons go through the sky bridges that connect adjacent towers with the performance space, and from there to the ground level,” explained Ruth Wong, a fire engineer from Arup’s Singapore office.
In the event of a fire in the theatre, theatre patrons would be given priority over other evacuees to avoid pedestrian traffic jams, she said.
“The sky bridges were also adapted so that they could act as a conduit for outside air,” Wong said.
Arup’s fire team is known for its ability to devise workable, clever solutions to fire safety in complex, innovative buildings.
Background
one-north is a 200-hectare development site in central Singapore that is being developed in stages by JTC Corporation. In 2002 the important London-based architect, Zaha Hadid, won an international competition to design the one-north masterplan: a series of office and technology-focussed developments. The first building to emerge was Biopolis, designed for the biomedical sciences. The second development is the Fusionopolis cluster. This 30-hectare development will proceed, according to market demand, in five phases.
Fusionopolis Phase One is JTC’s flagship development. The multi-building, 120,000m² complex was designed by the late Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa. It embodies Kurokawa’s concept of a ‘work, live, play, learn’ environment. Intended as a hub for media and information technologies of the future, it is set to become a creative environment where brilliant ideas are born: a nerve centre and, almost literally, a “neural network.”
Built over an MRT station and parking facilities, the AU$240m/S$300m Phase One part of the complex consists of two multi-storey towers with an ovoid-shaped theatre auditorium seemingly suspended between them at 5/6 storeys and linked by sky bridges.
It contains office space, a technology showcase and a media studio integrated with “work-live” apartments, a clubhouse, a pool and fitness centre, and retail outlets.
More: www.arup.com