Marina Bay: Singapore's Futurist Waterfront
Marina Bay is Singapore's defining modern set piece — a 360-hectare reservoir and surrounding waterfront district completed in stages from 2006 to 2012, centered on the bay formed when the Singapore River was dammed at its mouth to create Marina Reservoir (Singapore's 15th and largest reservoir, supplying roughly 10% of national water demand). The district was built almost entirely on reclaimed land — the area was open sea until the 1970s and 1980s — and now contains Marina Bay Sands (the integrated resort and hotel that defines the global image of modern Singapore), Gardens by the Bay (a 101-hectare horticultural park containing two cooled conservatories and 18 Supertrees), the Esplanade (Singapore's performing arts center), the Helix Bridge, the ArtScience Museum, and the Merlion Park, all linked by a 3.5-kilometer waterfront promenade that can be walked in under an hour.
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Merlion Park — Singapore's Mythological Mascot
Merlion Park, a small waterfront park at the southern tip of the Singapore River mouth where the river meets Marina Bay, contains the primary Merlion statue: an 8.6-meter, 70-tonne fibreglass and cement fountain sculpture of the mythological half-lion, half-fish creature that has served as Singapore's tourism mascot since it was commissioned by the Singapore Tourism Board in 1972 (designed by sculptor Fraser Brunner). The Merlion's head represents Singapore's original Malay name — Singapura, meaning 'lion city' — while the fish tail represents the city's origins as a fishing village and its ancient Sanskrit name Temasek ('sea town'). The park is primarily a photography spot — the statue is best viewed from the waterfront promenade or from Marina Bay Sands across the water — but the location is one of the best in Singapore for the full Marina Bay panorama, looking east toward the SkyPark, Gardens by the Bay, and the Central Business District towers.
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Marina Bay Sands — The SkyPark and Integrated Resort
Marina Bay Sands, the integrated resort designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 2010, is the most recognizable building in Singapore: three 55-storey towers (each shaped like a playing card, offset to create visual rhythm) crowned by the 340-meter-long SkyPark — a cantilevered platform designed to look like a surfboard balanced on the top of the three towers, overhanging the south tower by 66.5 meters (the largest public cantilever in the world at the time of construction). The SkyPark contains the world's largest rooftop infinity pool (146 meters long, visible from the street below), observation decks (the best 360-degree view of Singapore available to the public for S$32), and landscaped gardens at 200 meters above sea level. Below: a casino (one of only two in Singapore, the other being on Sentosa), a 2,561-room hotel, the ArtScience Museum, the Shoppes mall, and the Sands Expo and Convention Centre. The integrated resort employed 10,000 workers, cost US$5.5 billion, and when it opened made Singapore one of the top five casino markets in the world within its first year of operation.
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Gardens by the Bay — Supertrees and Climate-Controlled Biomes
Gardens by the Bay, a 101-hectare national garden park reclaimed from the sea and opened in 2012, is simultaneously a horticultural attraction, a sustainability demonstration project, and one of the most ambitious works of landscape architecture in the world: 18 Supertrees (vertical gardens of 25–50 meters in height, their steel armatures planted with 162,900 plants from 200 species of bromeliads, orchids, ferns, and tropical flowering climbers), two climate-controlled glass biomes (the Flower Dome, the world's largest glass greenhouse, replicating a Mediterranean climate and containing plants from five climate zones; and the Cloud Forest, a 35-meter mountain shrouded in mist and covered in tropical mountain plants accessible via walkways), and 225 hectares of themed outdoor gardens designed by Grant Associates of Bath. The Supertrees serve as vertical gardens, solar energy collectors (the photovoltaic cells integrated into the canopy generate enough electricity to power the Supertree Grove's lighting), rainwater collection systems, and air exhaust outlets for the biomes. The nightly OCBC Garden Rhapsody light and sound show (free, 7:45pm and 8:45pm) illuminates all 18 Supertrees simultaneously for 15 minutes using a synchronized audio-visual program — the best free show in Singapore.
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ArtScience Museum — The Lotus on the Water
The ArtScience Museum, designed by Moshe Safdie (the same architect as Marina Bay Sands) and opened in 2011, is the only museum in the world shaped like a giant lotus flower: a white fibreglass structure of 10 petal-shaped 'fingers' rising from a central atrium, with a 35-meter-diameter oculus in the roof that collects rainwater and releases it as a central waterfall into the building's lobby below (the building collects enough rainwater to supply all its own non-potable water needs). The museum hosts major travelling exhibitions from international institutions (the V&A, the Smithsonian, NASA) as well as the permanent Future World immersive digital art installation by the Japanese collective teamLab — 16 rooms of interactive, projection-mapped digital art in which visitors can 'interact' with virtual flowers, rivers, fish schools, and weather systems that respond to touch and movement.
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Helix Bridge and the Bay Promenade
The Helix Bridge, a 280-meter pedestrian bridge connecting Marina Centre to Marina South, is the world's first and only bridge shaped like a double helix — the DNA structure that encodes all biological life. Designed by Cox Architecture with Architects 61 and structural engineers Arup, the bridge's outer helix is formed from 650 tonnes of duplex stainless steel (chosen for its resistance to Singapore's tropical humidity and salt air) and is illuminated at night with LED lights embedded along its rails, casting the DNA pattern in red and white light on the bay's surface. The bridge is embedded in the 3.5-kilometer Marina Bay waterfront promenade that links Merlion Park, the Helix Bridge, Gardens by the Bay, and Marina Barrage — the best continuous waterfront walk in Southeast Asia.
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Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay
The Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay, Singapore's performing arts center opened in 2002 (designed by DP Architects of Singapore and Michael Wilford and Partners of the UK), is the building Singaporeans call 'the Durian': two domed structures covered in approximately 7,000 triangular aluminium sunshades (each shading one internal glass pane from direct tropical sunlight) that give the building its distinctive spiky appearance resembling the Southeast Asian fruit. The Esplanade contains a 1,600-seat Concert Hall (one of Asia's top acoustic venues, housing a 4,740-pipe pipe organ), a 2,000-seat Theatre for dramatic performances, a smaller Recital Studio, a Theatre Studio, multiple outdoor performance spaces, and a free mall of music shops and restaurants. The outdoor waterfront stage facing Marina Bay hosts free performances most evenings — the best place to experience Singapore's performing arts without paying for a ticket.