The 23-storey Pan Pacific Orchard skyscraper in Singapore by architecture studio WOHA has won the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s award for the world’s best new tall building.
Set in the city’s Orchard Road district, the 350-room hotel has four large planted terraces cut into the building’s rectangular form.
The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), which described the building as “a hotel in nature”, gave the building its top award – Best Tall Building Worldwide – for the way it demonstrates Singapore’s sustainable vision.
“Amidst Orchard’s renowned shopping malls, tree-lined boulevards and mixed-use towers, Pan Pacific Orchard stands out as a beacon of Singapore’s environmental vision,” said CTBUH.
“The project’s ‘hotel-in-nature’ concept transforms the traditional high-rise into a vertical green space, with multiple terraced gardens and water features integrated into the building, achieving a green plot ratio of more than 300 per cent,” it continued.
“By holistically incorporating greenery into its design, Pan Pacific Orchard honors Singapore’s heritage while pushing the envelope of sustainable urban development in a dense, urban setting.”
Completed in 2024, Pan Pacific Orchard is divided into segments with each six-storey section overlooking a terrace with a different theme – forest, beach, garden and cloud.
These terraces contain sheltered outdoor amenity spaces for guests and also help cross-ventilate the interiors. They are supported with large corner columns covered in planting, intended to help boost to the city’s biodiversity.
“At WOHA, we believe in creating living buildings that are integrated with nature, as well as the urban fabric of the cities they inhabit, and Pan Pacific Orchard represents our commitment to building for both people and the planet,” said WOHA founding director Mun Summ Wong.
“This project demonstrates that sustainability and hospitality can go hand-in-hand, and that skyscrapers can serve as green lungs within dense urban environments.”
The Pan Pacific Orchard was also named winner of the Best Tall Building 100-199 Meters by the CTBUH. Among the other winners was One Za’abeel in Dubai, which was recently named the world’s best new skyscraper by Dezeen readers.
Brooklyn Tower by SHoP Architects was named Best Tall Building 300 Meters and Above, while BIG’s Kaktus Towers received the award for Europe’s best skyscraper.
The winners of the regional and height-based categories are below:
Best Tall Building Worldwide: Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore
Best Tall Building, Americas: Boston University Center for Computing & Data Sciences, by KPMB Architects Boston, United States
Best Tall Building, Asia: Greenland Hangzhou Century Center, by SOM, Hangzhou, China
Best Tall Building, Oceania: T3 Collingwood, by Jackson Clements Burrows, Melbourne, Australia
Best Tall Building, Europe: Kaktus Towers, by BIG, Copenhagen, Denmark
Best Tall Building, Middle East and Africa: One Za’abeel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Best Tall Building Under 100 Meters: T3 Collingwood, by Jackson Clements Burrows, Melbourne, Australia
Best Tall Building 100-199 Meters: Pan Pacific Orchard, by WOHA, Singapore
Best Tall Building 200-299 Meters: 8 Bishopsgate, by WilkinsonEyre, London, United Kingdom
Best Tall Building 300 Meters and Above: Brooklyn Tower, by SHoP Architects, New York City, United States
The photography is by Darren Soh.
