A block of 12-storey residential flat development (total: 23 units) with sky terraces, a basement carpark, and communal facilities including a swimming pool, a gym and a lounge. The site has a plot ratio of 1.6, which makes it a medium-rise development.
Size:
Total surface area (m²):
Site Area: 3,357m²
Permissible Plot Ratio: 1.6
Overall GFA (with balconies): 5,908.70m²
Number of residential developments:
20 maisonette units and 3 penthouse apartments
Location:
Located along Balmoral Road, The Oliv is set amidst an upper-middle income residential area in central Singapore, near to the Orchard shopping belt.
Synopsis:
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Singapore has been promoting vertical greening and the provision of communal space in residential development. One of the most prominent regulatory features implemented by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) is the introduction of sky terrace as a communal space, which is exempted from Gross Floor Area (GFA) calculation. The essence of the sky terrace guideline is that it must be accessible for all residents and at least double volume in height. (GFA exemption includes area that falls within the 45-degree section line from the underside of any opaque structures above.)
The Oliv is essentially an architectural expression of this particular guideline, pushed to its limits. It has become the most notable feature of the façade.
The apartments consist of front and back blocks that stagger in section. The 2 blocks are connected and served by a spinal block of common lifts and services. Each floor plate of a block consists of 2 maisonettes, sharing a substantial 130m2 sky terrace, accessible by a common lift. The 7m high sky terrace fronting the units is a covered and landscaped outdoor space – giving each unit a feeling of an extended exterior ground.
When viewed from the exterior, the sky terraces are expressed as a series of elevated and undulating ground-scape with irregular profiles. The two ends of each sky terrace tapers off in different directions in response to the privacy of the adjacent rooms.
The sky terrace, which tapers from 5.5 to 7m in depth, also acts as a large projection canopy that cuts off glare from the double volume interior. The undersides of the sky terraces are expressed as cast and textured off-form concrete, whereas the floor is finished in natural balau (timber), complete with recessed planter boxes that carry the lushes of the vertical garden.
The raw and natural quality of the sky terraces makes it an organic element, which contrasts strongly to the linear geometry for the rest of the development.
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Passive architectural features, which are integrated into the space-planning of the apartments, ensure that households have sufficient shade, minimum glare and plenty of vertical greening. Such passive tools are the most holistic way, in terms of environmental design, of responding to our tropical climate.
The east-west-facing facades have full height and user-operable sunscreens that regulate the direct sunlight and heat. The feature sky-terraces at the north-south sides act as large projection canopies with depth ranging from 5.5m to 7m, effectively cutting down sun glare and tropical heat to the interior double volume spaces that look out to the sky terraces.
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Instead of seeing rules as restrictions, The Oliv is exemplary of how projects can take advantage of regulations and transform them into new opportunities for high-density living in Singapore.
The fronting of the communal sky terraces for each floor of 2 units not o nly stretches the idea of communal, it also provides opportunities for new architectural expressions. The result is striking – a dominant feature of sky terrace façades at both the front and back of the apartments.
The substantial area and greening of the sky terrace in front of each unit re-enacts the experiences of living in a landed property. Apartment-living in The Oliv is brought to the next level of living in bungalows-in-the-air.
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