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For decades, governments around the world have looked to Singapore for tips on how to make their cities function better and appear easier on the eye. Now the prosperous southeast Asian city-state is replicating a part of itself on the banks of the muddy Yangtze and Jialing rivers in China.
The folks at the backing consortium, led by Singapore property developer CapitaLand might disagree, but the newly slated S$4.1 billion (US$3.15 billion) Chao Tian Men mixed-use development in Chongqing municipality bears an unambiguous resemblance to the $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands casino-resort, which was opened in Singapore last year by U.S. gaming group Las Vegas Sands Corp.
That, of course, might have something to do with the fact that both projects share the same architect, Israeli-born Moshe Safdie.
Both projects feature recreation-focused sky deck structures that connect the developments’ various swept-back towers. And at the base of the Chongqing towers sits a half lotus-shaped roof structure that gives a subtle wink to the design of the similarly-positioned ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.
An artist’s depiction of the Chongqing development as seen from the river
Not surprisingly, CapitaLand has its own take on what the construction will look like when it’s completed in 2016. Iconic yes, but MBS it is not.
“Inspiration takes the form of powerful sails upon the river, symbolizing a great city surging forward,” it says in one investor release, pushing the city’s emergence as an economically strategic hub in the nation.
One distinctive and potentially controversial difference in the China project is the proposed inclusion of centrally positioned twin towers–both more than 70-storeys in height–which, at least from the concept art, look very similar to an iconic Manhattan structure that sadly no longer stands.
Another obvious difference is in the function of the two centers, with the absence of gambling in the Chongqing project, which will have a gross floor area of 817,000 square meters throughout eight towers, of which 41% will be residential, 27% retail, 21% office and 7% hotel.
The bulk of the project’s capital comes from Singapore government-linked enterprise CapitaLand, its subsidiary CapitaMalls Asia and Singbridge, a unit of state-investment firm Temasek Holdings. The three entities will hold a combined 80% stake in the development, with the remaining 20% held by unnamed investors.
The CapitaLand stable of companies has exported to Asian emerging countries a number of development models, which were originally derived by Singapore policymakers.
Surbana, originally the urban-planning arm of the Singapore government’s Housing and Development Board and in which CapitaLand acquired a 40% stake earlier this year, is now looking to use its expertise in Singapore’s government housing sector to design townships in China and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, CapitaMalls Asia has replicated a number of its landmark Singapore properties, such as ION Orchard, Raffles City and Clarke Quay, in designs for many of its China projects. The group has 40 operational shopping malls in China and another 16 under development.
The folks at the backing consortium, led by Singapore property developer CapitaLand might disagree, but the newly slated S$4.1 billion (US$3.15 billion) Chao Tian Men mixed-use development in Chongqing municipality bears an unambiguous resemblance to the $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands casino-resort, which was opened in Singapore last year by U.S. gaming group Las Vegas Sands Corp.
That, of course, might have something to do with the fact that both projects share the same architect, Israeli-born Moshe Safdie.
Both projects feature recreation-focused sky deck structures that connect the developments’ various swept-back towers. And at the base of the Chongqing towers sits a half lotus-shaped roof structure that gives a subtle wink to the design of the similarly-positioned ArtScience Museum at Marina Bay Sands.
An artist’s depiction of the Chongqing development as seen from the river
Not surprisingly, CapitaLand has its own take on what the construction will look like when it’s completed in 2016. Iconic yes, but MBS it is not.
“Inspiration takes the form of powerful sails upon the river, symbolizing a great city surging forward,” it says in one investor release, pushing the city’s emergence as an economically strategic hub in the nation.
One distinctive and potentially controversial difference in the China project is the proposed inclusion of centrally positioned twin towers–both more than 70-storeys in height–which, at least from the concept art, look very similar to an iconic Manhattan structure that sadly no longer stands.
Another obvious difference is in the function of the two centers, with the absence of gambling in the Chongqing project, which will have a gross floor area of 817,000 square meters throughout eight towers, of which 41% will be residential, 27% retail, 21% office and 7% hotel.
The bulk of the project’s capital comes from Singapore government-linked enterprise CapitaLand, its subsidiary CapitaMalls Asia and Singbridge, a unit of state-investment firm Temasek Holdings. The three entities will hold a combined 80% stake in the development, with the remaining 20% held by unnamed investors.
The CapitaLand stable of companies has exported to Asian emerging countries a number of development models, which were originally derived by Singapore policymakers.
Surbana, originally the urban-planning arm of the Singapore government’s Housing and Development Board and in which CapitaLand acquired a 40% stake earlier this year, is now looking to use its expertise in Singapore’s government housing sector to design townships in China and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, CapitaMalls Asia has replicated a number of its landmark Singapore properties, such as ION Orchard, Raffles City and Clarke Quay, in designs for many of its China projects. The group has 40 operational shopping malls in China and another 16 under development.
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