The CapitaSpring tower wins the International High-Rise Award 2024

 
Frankfurt, 12.11.2024

The final winner of the International High-Rise Award (IHA) 2024/25 has now been chosen: The mixed-use CapitaSpring tower in Singapore, masterminded by architectural practices BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group and Carlo Ratti Associati has come out tops in the competition for the world’s most innovative high-rise. The prize is EUR 50,000 and a statuette created by internationally renowned artist Thomas Demand.
 
On behalf of the architects, Brian Yang of BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group as well as Gregory Chua on behalf of the developers CapitaLand were present to take receipt of the award at the formal ceremony in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche, where it was bestowed by Mike Josef (Lord Mayor of the City of Frankfurt/Main), Dr. Matthias Danne (Deputy Chair of the Board of DekaBank) and Peter Cachola Schmal (Director of Deutsches Architekturmuseum).
 
When the jury convened for the 11^th International High-Rise Award, it was against the backdrop of the huge global challenges facing the built environment. The jury discussed at length the issue of what should define high-rises going forward, the role they have to play in urban society post-pandemic and in the midst of massive increases in urban populations – all within the context of the specific typology of tall buildings as the fastest growing architectural form. They agreed that the challenges can be summed up as the need to greenify, the need to densify, and the need to use what’s already in place to the greatest possible extent. Combining all three needs is the task facing architects and urban planners alike from now on, and it was in light of this that jury chair Kim Herforth Nielsen set out the main criteria the jury would apply when assessing the total of 31 projects. Over and above beauty and technical ingenuity, the jury’s assessment was thus based specifically on the social value of each project as a ‘good neighbor’, its sustainable character, how innovative it is in solving local issues, and whether it offered a good, future-proof design. After careful consideration of these criteria, the jury unanimously selected CapitaSpring in Singapore as the winner of the International High-Rise Award 2024/25.
 
CapitaSpring, the jury concluded, is “the best high-rise building in the world at the moment”. The jurors chose it because it combines the best of two worlds, balancing the city’s interests with those of private developers in an ideal architectural solution. CapitaSpring stands 280 meters tall on a site that for many years was wasteland used as a parking lot and a street-food market. Now, the high-rise incorporates both within its walls, symbolizing its strong ability to connect between the public and the private, between the office world up above and the two-floor hawker centre down below, where everyone meets for lunch. In-between is a breezy, naturally ventilated green zone straddling the 17th to 20th floors just below the tower’s serviced residential section, again publicly accessible, as are the sky gardens on the roof.
In the process, by virtue of remaining inclusive, CapitaSpring belongs to the city. The jury agreed that CapitaSpring is essentially successful as it is “co-designed” – because the city has a great planning regime and because the developer had a certain vision to make a private real estate office into a vertical public space. In this way, CapitaSpring moves the tall-building typology a crucial step forward – for the future of the city. While some of its open façades are specific to the local tropical climate, the general underlying idea of an open city-within-the-city, encouraged by cooperation between regulators and developers, can be transferred worldwide. As the jury concluded: “We are honoring the city for giving the developer the right incentives, and the developer for seizing the initiative, and the architects for finding an innovative solution to it all. All of this is reflected in the quality of the architecture. CapitaSpring could simply not have been built elsewhere at present. Other cities can definitely learn from this.”
 
 
Statements by the winner and partners of the IHA
 
Bjarke Ingels, founding partner of BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, enthusiastically commented: “In 2016, our first high-rise - the New York VIA 57 West - won the International High-Rise Award - a great honor. The courtscraper was about providing the American skyscraper with the urban oasis and social space of a European courtyard. Today with CapitaSpring we have set out to explore the high-rise as a vertical extension of a uniquely Singaporean form of tropical urbanism. By wresting the vertical lines of the façade apart, the tower opens up for access and views between inside and outside, turning the traditional pinstripe of the classic curtainwall into something more engaging, inviting, and accessible. A simple gesture that fundamentally reimagines the social role of a skyscraper. Needless to say that we are deeply grateful that Capitaspring has moved the jury as much as it has ourselves."
 
Brian Yang, partner at BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, stated: “As someone of Singaporean heritage, I have been honored and humbled by the opportunity to contribute to the ongoing evolution of architecture in Singapore as a distinct blend of the contemporary and the tropical. In our design, this manifests as a seamless transition between the garden and the city, articulated in the facades and a series of lush, spiraling gardens connecting various programs and amenities.”
 
Carlo Ratti said in thanks: "We are deeply honored to receive the International High-Rise Award and grateful for this recognition. I wish to extend our heartfelt thanks to CapitaLand. When we were first invited to join the architectural competition, we saw a unique opportunity to team up and join forces with BIG to achieve a bold result together. Several years later, we take particular pride in how the project has shaped new kinds of public spaces, creating a rich experience for all users through the integration of technology and green elements. We hope this recognition inspires further investigation into the convergence between nature and architecture in our cities.”
 
CapitaLand, Client:
Tan Yew Chin, Chief Executive Officer, CapitaLand Development (Singapore) remarked: “We are deeply honoured to receive the International High-Rise Award 2024/25 for CapitaSpring. This achievement would not have been possible without the invaluable collaboration of our design partners, BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Carlo Ratti Associati and RSP. CapitaSpring, which is jointly owned by CapitaLand and Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd, sets a new benchmark for the office of the future, reflecting our commitment to a greener, more sustainable future. The innovative, biophilic integrated development embodies CapitaLand’s ambition to create a high-rise that harmonises with the cityscape and supports a dynamic work-live-play environment. It offers building occupants a premium, multifaceted experience, further enhanced by our core-flex solutions that adapt to evolving workplace strategies and support a vibrant community.
 
Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA), Singapore Planning Authority:
URA's Chief Urban Designer Fun Siew Leng explained: “CapitaSpring contributes to the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore (URA)’s efforts to rejuvenate Singapore’s Central Business District (CBD) to create a dynamic and vibrant district through its generous public contributions. These include housing a hawker centre for affordable food options in the CBD, turning a street into a pedestrianised urban park, providing a through-block link and city room, as well as dramatic and lushly planted public spaces in the form of roof gardens and sky terraces within the building. CapitaSpring is the result of collaborative efforts between the URA and CapitaLand and their design team in an effort to redefine a CBD that is mixed-use, with well-designed public spaces and high-rise greenery.”
 
Dr. Matthias Danne, Deputy Chair of the Board of DekaBank, emphasized: “CapitaSpring impressively and successfully realizes a vision: The high-rise achieves a seamless transition between nature and the city in the midst of Singapore’s densely built Central Business District. The elegant, sustainable multi-use building provides high-grade public spaces and combines in a single building almost all the functions of an entire neighborhood. CapitaSpring also blazes the trail in creating a modern world of work. The building enables tenants to work in a garden world while relying on ultra-modern digital technologies and in this way sets standards for the office of the future.”
 
Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Mike Josef commented: “20 years ago the International High-Rise Award was bestowed for the first time by the three partners, DekaBank, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, and the City of Frankfurt/Main. Since then, the award has emerged as the most important recognition of pioneering high-rise buildings. The winning projects have been role models that many have subsequently emulated, not just architects, but also project developers and urban planning authorities the world over. We as a city therefore likewise follow the trends with great interest and have recently brought the insights gained to bear in our new high-rise development plan.”
 
Dr. Ina Hartwig, Deputy Mayor and Head of the City of Frankfurt’s Department of Culture, offered praise: “The winner CapitaSpring is an outstanding example of a high-rise that combines private work and the life of the community. The diverse and inexpensive offerings in the hawker center (food court) in the podium forges a strong link to the local community and its history. The large greened spaces open to the public provide welcome break-time areas in the histle and bustle of downtown. In this way, the building becomes an open house at various levels – and not just for a lucky few, but for the entire population of Singapore. Such social and cultural elements that everyone can experience is something I would very much like to see in our high-rises here in Frankfurt, too.”
 
Peter Cachola Schmal, Director of Deutsches Architekturmuseums (DAM), explained: “All the other cities can learn from Singapore. In particular as regards the transformation of their downtowns. How to create quality new spaces, how to onboard third parties to invest in building such spaces? Singapore’s answer is: “Incentivize!” Meaning offer economic stimuli to make win-win situations seem most probable, as this gets everyone involved pulling together, be it the project developers, the investors, and of course the architects: In a successful office high-rise project that at the end emerges as a tourist hot-spot, too, where everyone wants to work, or live in the hotel, or eat in the restaurant. The urban decisionmakers have in this way come up with a really interesting, trailblazing concept for a new build.”
 
During the awards ceremony, the four other short-listed projects were also honored:
 
IQON Residences, Quito, Ecuador
Architecture: BIG-Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen, Denmark / New York, USA
 
Shenzhen Women & Children's Center, Shenzhen, China
Architecture: MVRDV, Rotterdam, Netherlands
 
Valley, Amsterdam, Niederlande
Architecture: MVRDV, Rotterdam, Netherlands
 
Bunker Tower, Eindhoven, Niederlande
Architecture: Powerhouse Company, Rotterdam, Netherlands
 
From over 1,000 high-rises that were completed worldwide over the last two years, Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) nominated 31 outstanding buildings from 13 different countries. An international jury of experts from architecture and engineering practice and the partners of the IHA, namely DekaBank, the City of Frankfurt, and Deutsches Architekturmuseum – chaired by Kim Herforth Nielsen (Architekt 3XN, Copenhagen) – gathered to select the final five for the shortlist and subsequently the winner.
 
 
International High-Rise Award (IHA)
 
The International High-Rise Award (IHA) was jointly initiated in 2003 by the City of Frankfurt, Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) and DekaBank and was awarded for the first time in 2004. Since then, it has been organized and realized cooperatively every two years.
The IHA is aimed at architects and developers whose buildings are at least 100 meters high and have been completed in the past two years.
 
 
Deutsches Architekturmuseum presents all the nominated projects
 
The exhibition Best High-Rises 2024/25 – The International High-Rise Award, which the Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM) will show at the Museum Angewandte Kunst in Frankfurt/Main from November 14, 2024 until January 12, 2025, includes all the nominated projects in addition to the award winner and the short-listed finalists.
 
 
More information from:
www.international-highrise-award.com
 
Press photos can be downloaded from:
www.international-highrise-award.com/en/press
www.dam-online.de/presse
 
 
Press contact:
 
Deutsches Architekturmuseum (DAM)
Head of Press & PR
Brita Köhler
T +49 (0)69 212 36318 / brita.koehler@stadt-frankfurt.de


DekaBank
Press Officer
Dr. Daniela Gniss
T +49 (0)69 71 47 - 21 88
daniela.gniss@deka.de
 
 
Media partner of the International High-Rise Award 2024/25:
 
STYLEPARK

DekaBank is the securities services provider of the German Savings Banks Finance Group (Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe). Together with its subsidiaries it forms Deka Group. With total customer assets of more than EUR 402 billion (as at 30/06/2024) and 5.6 million securities accounts, DekaBank is one of the largest securities services providers and real estate asset managers in Germany. It provides private and institutional investors with access to a wide range of investment products and services. DekaBank is firmly anchored in the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe (Savings Banks Finance Group) and tailors its product portfolio to the requirements of its owners and sales partners in the securities business.