Our Tampines Hub

Shade of the Forest – a Comfortable Space

Everyone enjoys the warmth of sunshine, but it can get intense in certain climates. We want the best of both world’s; the sun, but with control of its rays. We often seek the natural shade of trees because we want to be protected, while still feeling the comforts of being outdoors. Finding material that does just that can be found at Singapore’s Our Tampines Hub: a Texlon^® ETFE system.

The Tampines Hub is a community centre and more. It is designed to go back to the resident’s cultural roots and create a community. “Tampines” in Malay stands for Ironwood trees (tempinis) which grew abundantly in the East Region of Singapore and gave the area its name. Planting a forest to cover the hub wasn’t feasible, so instead it was decided that replicating the shade of the forest was the next best option.

Comfortable Texlon^® ETFE Canopy

Ensuring people feel comfortable, while enjoying dining and retail activities, sports, arts and culture was the outcome. Vector Foiltec helped create this want for the best of both worlds with a translucent, two layer, 3,600 m² Texlon^® ETFE canopy.

Shadows depicting leaves were imitated within the foil cushions by providing four different shades of silver prints arranged in a recurring order. The canopy’s layer’s and print patterns supply high thermal performance while providing high amounts of natural light with anti-glare properties. The canopy mirrors the floor pattern which underlines the shading of leaves. The thin steel trees are seemingly rooted, reaching from the ground up to the ceiling to enhance the aesthetics of the forest concept.

Vector Foiltec’s Scope of Work

Vector Foiltec’s scope of work included the design, engineering and installation of the Texlon^® ETFE system with steelwork, gutter, low level cladding and authority submissions. Vector Foiltec’s engineers managed to change the steelwork from an simple truss to a single tapering structure, which had large savings for the client and made the canopy more open and elegant.

Green Mark Platinum

The retail and leisure mall was awarded with the Green Mark Platinum Award by the Building and Construction Authority (BCA) of Singapore at the BCA Awards 2015, which is a great achievement. Further, Our Tampines Hub won the Platinum BCA Universal Design Mark Award for a community-focused design in 2019.