Jewel Changi Airport Sets 17 April Opening

Jewel Changi Airport announced on 7 March 2019 that it will open to the public on 17 April 2019, preceded by a free, ticketed preview from 11 to 16 April with 500,000 tickets available. The complex is a joint venture between Changi Airport Group and CapitaLand.

Jewel covers around 137,000 square metres and brings together more than 280 shopping and dining outlets, a hotel and attractions, with five basement car park levels below. According to the release, more than 90 per cent of outlets were expected to be operating during the preview.

The building was designed by Safdie Architects under Moshe Safdie, with RSP Architects Planners and Engineers and Benoy. Its toroidal glass-and-steel roof spans about 650 feet at its widest point, and the project rises five storeys above ground and five below, according to Architectural Record, which put its cost at US$1.26 billion.

At its centre is the Rain Vortex, a 40-metre indoor waterfall billed as the tallest of its kind, engineered with fountain specialists WET. Around it, the four-storey Forest Valley holds terraced walking trails planted by PWP Landscape Architecture, while the Canopy Park on the top level, with a hedge maze, topiary walk and suspended bridge, is scheduled to follow in mid-2019.

Safdie has described the aim as turning the airport’s role as a transit hub into “an interactive civic and urban center”, a public destination for Singapore residents as much as for passengers. Visitor information is on the Jewel Changi Airport website.