International Architecture Awards Tell a friend
ARCHIVE 2025
International Architecture Awards
Architects: Boiffils Architectures
Design Team: Basile Boiffils, Jacqueline Boiffils, Henri Boiffils, Arda Beyleryan, Monir Thomas, Sungju Kwak, Nicolas Delesalle, Laura Follin, and Victoire Bonniol
Associate Architects: RSP Architects Planners & Engineers (Pte.) Ltd.
General Contractor: Takenaka Corporation
Landscape Architects: Genesis Nine One (Pte.) Ltd.
Client: Changi Airport Group
Photographers: Fabian Ong and Changi Airport Group
The Terminal 2 Expansion (T2E) project redesigned Singapore's Changi Airport Terminal 2 extensively, adding five million passengers per annum to the terminal handling capacity. This 5-year expansion project, spanning 120,000m² across three levels, prioritizes traveler experiences and environmental connections. Our proposal emphasizes passenger comfort over efficiency, departing from traditional airport design. It enhances passenger experience by integrating visual, auditory, and interactive elements to provide a sense of tranquility. It was officially completed on November 1st, 2023.
T2E aimed to evoke the calming effects of nature through an indoor landscape featuring minerals, water elements, and lush vegetation. These elements were inspired by natural forms, from topography and geology to water reflections, blurring the boundaries between architecture and landscape.
The Departure check-in islands were redesigned to create a spacious, panoramic environment that enables smooth circulation and reduces travel stress. The design features extensive transparency and openness, alleviating anxiety associated with navigation around the airport. By concealing technical elements and surrounding travelers with lush, vegetated walls and vibrant carpet design, the revised layout guides passengers effortlessly through the space.
The project embodies a harmonious interplay between technology and nature, where technological advancements enhance both comfort and efficiency while keeping the human experience at its core. This vision is realized through two immersive installations, which blend natural elements, LED screens, and audio-visual effects to create a tranquil retreat.
Travelers have the opportunity to experience Singapore's flora through two unique immersive installations. Leveraging advances in technology that would not have existed a decade ago, the studio created a visual focus at the central axis of the Departure Hall in the form of a 14-meter-high digital waterfall display known as “The Wonderfall”. Soothing cascades flow between vertical gardens rising on both sides of the curved LED screen, composed of three large flat segments to provide an optimal view. Several times an hour, the tumultuous waters change direction on megaliths, creating a fascinating dance between the elements.
In the transit area, another installation provides a restful respite for layover passengers disoriented by intercontinental travel. To provide a sense of connection with the outdoors, where they are not permitted to go, an LED ceiling replicates external weather conditions in real time, from overcast skies to sunrises and sunsets. Additionally, every 30 minutes, a show features the skylight screen producing rain, accumulating water, spurring vegetation growth, and more. On the floor, an acrylic edged platform gives the impression of walking on water, embraced by abstract mirrored steel walls and flowing water in an area collectively known as ‘Dreamscape'.
Another major contributor to the human experience is the use of Artisanal materials throughout the project, with boutique artisans crafting features such as the organically shaped counters, stucco walls, and blown glass chandeliers. By prioritizing a calming and eco-friendly design theme, T2E sets a high benchmark in ecological design. T2E was awarded the prestigious Platinum Green Mark Certification, the highest accolade in Singapore's green building rating system.
