Tall & Urban News

On 25 September, CTBUH announced the winner of its annual award for the 2024 best tall building worldwide as Pan Pacific Orchard, in Singapore. Winners were also announced in five regional categories, four height categories, a special global icon award, and a dozen other functional categories  (a complete list of categories and winners appears below) at the organization’s annual international conference, themed New or Renew: The Density Dilemma, in London and Paris.

Amidst Orchard's renowned shopping malls, tree-lined boulevards and mixed-use towers, Pan Pacific Orchard stands out as a beacon of Singapore’s environmental vision. The project’s “hotel in nature” concept transforms the traditional high-rise into a vertical green space, with multiple terraced gardens and water features integrated into the building, achieving a green plot ratio of more than 300 percent. By holistically incorporating greenery into its design, Pan Pacific Orchard honors Singapore's heritage while pushing the envelope of sustainable urban development in a dense, urban setting.

“Pan Pacific Orchard represents the best in responsible vertical urbanism today,” explained CTBUH CEO Javier Quintana de Uña. “It does so by considering the question at the very core of this year’s conference—New or Renew?—from a more encompassing and nuanced perspective: this isn’t a building refurbishment; it’s about reimagining entire communities in novel, forward-thinking ways. The significance of Pan Pacific Orchard cannot be overstated—it emphasizes the revitalization of urban spaces rather than relying solely on new developments.”

Both structurally and conceptually, Pan Pacific Orchard breaks from tradition: instead of a tower-on-podium design, it delineates a series of four terraced sky gardens with individualized motifs—forest, beach, garden and cloud—which provide guests distinctive amenities and biomimetic landscapes at each level. The “forest” terrace at ground level features lush foliage and a cascading water plaza, while the “beach” terrace includes a tranquil lagoon surrounded by palms. The “garden” terrace offers serene walking paths, and the “cloud” terrace, capped with a photovoltaic canopy, hosts events with views of the surrounding city. These spaces create a unique connection between guests and nature while mitigating Singapore’s tropical heat through passive design strategies that reduce energy consumption and improve ventilation.

Read more news coverage of Pan Pacific Orchard and the CTBUH 2024 award winners:

Archinect
CNN
Construction News
Daily Guardian (Canada)
Dezeen
KTLA
Monocle/ The Urbanist podcast
Morningstar
Nashville Post
New Atlas
News24
The Tennessean
Travel + Leisure Asia
Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
Sina Hong Kong
The Manila Times
World Architects

CTBUH 2024 Award of Excellence Category Winners:
•    Best Tall Building (BTB) Worldwide: Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore
•    BTB Under 100 meters: T3 Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia
•    BTB 100–199 meters: Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore
•    BTB 200–299 meters: 8 Bishopsgate, London, United Kingdom
•    BTB 300 meters and above: Brooklyn Tower, New York City, United States
•    BTB Americas: Boston University Center for Computing & Data Sciences, Boston, United States
•    BTB Asia: Greenland Hangzhou Century Center, Hangzhou, China
•    BTB Europe: Kaktus Towers, Copenhagen, Denmark
•    BTB Middle East & Africa: One Za’abeel, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
•    BTB Oceania: T3 Collingwood, Melbourne, Australia
•    Urban Habitat Award: Al Wasl Plaza, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
•    Future Project Award: Centre Block Rehabilitation, Ottawa, Canada
•    10 Year Award: One World Trade Center, New York City, United States
•    Construction Award: Battersea Power Station Phase Two, London, United Kingdom
•    Repositioning Award: Book Tower, Detroit, United States
•    Innovation Award: Voided Post-Tensioned Slabs
•    Structure Award: 21 Moorfields, London, United Kingdom 
•    Façade Award: Paddington Square, London, United Kingdom
•    Systems Award: HD Hyundai Global R&D Center, Seongnam, South Korea
•    Space Within Award: Pan Pacific Orchard, Singapore
•    Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Award: Williams & Russell Project (Adre)
•    Global Icon Award: Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
•    Lynn S. Beedle Lifetime Achievement Award: Santiago Calatrava
•    Fazlur R. Khan Lifetime Achievement Award: John Zils