by Arthur Sim

UOL's Newton Suites has been selected as one of the five contenders for the International Highrise Award (IHA).

Having made the shortlist, Newton Suites, which is designed by award-winning Singapore architectural firm, WOHA, has been elevated to the same league of buildings designed by Foster and Partners (Hearst Tower, New York), Renzo Piano Building Workshop (New York Times Building) and OMA (Television Cultural Centre, Beijing).

An international jury of architects, engineers, real-estate specialists and architecture critics in Frankfurt/Main were responsible for the selection of the five buildings.

On Newton Suites, the Jury citation reads: 'In this residential tower, the feeling of living in the tropics both indoors and outdoors is transferred to a vertical dimension. It represents a development for life in the vertical in densely developed metropolises and can be seen as a pioneering model for other tropical cities.'

UOL Group COO Liam Wee Sin said that being on the shortlist with the likes of Hearst Tower and New York Times Building, 'is a step closer towards building an exciting living environment for Singapore, and having a development good enough to be selected among entries from around the world'.

'For UOL, the recognition will inspire us to continue to push the frontier of good design and sustainable city living in Singapore,' he added.

Newton Suites is a 36-storey apartment building, clad in metal mesh sunshading. It features cantilevered skygardens and a 30-storey wall of creepers.

The green areas of the building exceed the original site area, demonstrating how cities in the future can become much greener without loss of density or quality of living.

WOHA director Wong Mun Summ added: 'The integration of the environmental features such as sunshading and hanging gardens into the design shows how tropical highrise can be different from temperate climate models.'

This article was first published in The Business Times on July 24, 2008.