The Discovery Slides
In 2015, Carve and Playpoint won a tender for an adventurous sliding attraction inside the Jewel Changi Airport development, designed by Safdie Architects.
The attraction is located in the Canopy Park on the highest level of the new development, which includes a shopping mall, attraction park and garden, in front of Terminal 1, and which aims to be the ultimate airport experience.
The playground was designed like a sculpture resembling a gemstone, with parts that are carved out – the slides, stairs and rope climbs – revealing the colored interior of the gem. In this way the playground presents itself in duality; a gem balancing on the fifth ring of Jewel with a slide attraction hidden inside.
At first the sinuous shell was designed with mirror tiling over the whole structure. During the design process with the client this manifested as a continuous and seamless polished steel skin wrapping around the three cones holding up the large access platform: a shiny jewel in the green forest valley of the park. The shell, with its liquid mercury form, directs and accentuates focus on its surroundings and visitors can experience infinite and surreal reflections of themselves. The rubber patterning on the floor was designed to create a spiraling abstract reflection in the shell of the playground.
The bright yellow inside of the play sculpture contains four slides: a family slide, a steep drop slide and two glass-covered spiral slides coming down from the highest point. The Discovery Slides structure has a complete double curved steel surface. Curved glass was used as balustrades, in the viewing floor, as spiral slide covers and on the double curved lid of the highest cone. Fiber optic lights were integrated in the rubberized floor surrounding the structure, point lights in the highest cone and LED strips on the perimeter of the curved glass balustrade. Air-conditioning was also integrated into the sculpture’s viewing deck to provide a comfortable temperature when children are playing on the slides directly under the building’s roof.
The viewing deck of the playground will be the highest accessible point in the complex, giving a fantastic view of the entire interior of the airport terminal. This makes the play sculpture a crowd-pleaser and social media magnet, which also invites and attracts children of all ages for adventure and play.
Project: The Discovery Slides / Location: Canopy Park at Jewel Changi International Airport, Singapore, level 5 / Architect: Carve / Project team: Elger Blitz, Lucas Beukers, Mark van der Eng, Jasper van der Schaaf, Hannah Schubert, Thomas Tiel Groenestege, Marleen Beek, Elke Krausmann, Henry Roberts, Gaia Glereani / Construction: Playpoint / Client: Jewel Changi Airport Group / Size: 18×16, 7×7, 5 m / Completion: April 2019 / Photograph: ©Playpoint Pte Ltd (courtesy of the architect)
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