The campus for the Singapore National Research Foundation, is a precedent-setting scientific research center, comprising three mid-rise buildings and a high-rise tower. The design pioneers the use of advanced environmental sustainability and energy-efficient technologies, surpassing current flexibility and performance benchmarks for scientific research facilities in the tropics. It responds to Singapore's culturally rooted belief that the human soul needs nature's vitality to lift its spirit. "It is a vibrant place, a dense urban organism where ecosystem, environmental art and scientific discovery meet in a union of opposites: a tower in the garden; science in the rainforest." The project's mission is to stimulate innovation, discovery and entrepreneurship through the interaction and collaboration of scientists and engineers drawn from top research institutions, corporations and leading universities from around the globe. The architecture inspires interaction beyond the lab. Through its rich and diverse sequence of shared and social spaces, it weaves form, space and light into places for collaboration and collision, disruptive innovation, social interaction, contemplative solitude and accidental meeting. These are essential ingredients of a productive research environment. The core values of adaptability, interaction and sustainability are CREATE's conceptual drivers. CREATE pushes the boundaries of conventional lab design. Traditional laboratories are wide and divided by building cores and internal central corridors. At CREATE, the buildings are very narrow. Cores and corridors are located at the perimeter to introduce maximum daylight and flexibility. The universal module supports the full range of lab types from computational science, wet biology, dry chemistry as well as quality office space. As the first increment of the campus, CREATE embodies commitment to exploring and discovering new sustainable technologies. This unique place establishes CREATE's brand and resonates as a scholarly center for academia, corporate entrepreneurship, student life and public curiosity.
