Capella Singapore
A resort on Sentosa, opened in 2009, where Foster + Partners joined two 1880s colonial buildings to new curving wings.
- Neighbourhood
- Sentosa
- Opened
- March 2009
- Design
- Foster + Partners; DP Architects; interiors Jaya Ibrahim; landscape Coopers Hill
Capella Singapore opened in March 2009 on a wooded hill on Sentosa, the island off the southern shore of Singapore, in about twelve hectares of grounds. At its heart are two military buildings of the 1880s, restored and joined to new wings by Foster + Partners.
The hotel is a conversation between those two buildings and everything around them.
Two old houses on a hill
The colonial buildings at Tanah Merah were built when the island was a military outpost. Foster + Partners, working with the Singapore firm DP Architects, kept them as the entrance and the public rooms of the hotel, and set the new accommodation behind them in long, low wings that curve along the contours of the hill. The developer was Pontiac Land.
The interiors were the work of Jaya Ibrahim, the Indonesian designer, and the gardens were laid out by Coopers Hill. Between them, they give the hotel its particular quality: a resort that seems older than it is.
Villas in the trees
Rooms and suites face the gardens or the sea towards the southern islands. The villas, from one to two bedrooms, each have a terrace with a plunge pool, and the largest accommodation is in manors at the edge of the grounds, beside the two restored houses. A separate wing, The Club at Capella, holds apartments for long stays.
Cassia serves Cantonese cooking, Fiamma Italian, and Bob's Bar is the place for a drink. The Pineapple Room is a cocktail bar, and Auriga is the spa.
June 2018
On 12 June 2018 the hotel was the setting of the summit between the United States and North Korea.
Sentosa has since gained a second hotel of the same ambition, Raffles Sentosa, an all-villa resort. In the city, Raffles Singapore remains the old reference. Capella sits between the two ideas: a resort that needs only a short drive to reach the city.
Sources: Capella Hotels; Wikipedia; American Express.
