- Location: Singapore
- Architects: DP Architects Singapore; Michael Wilford & Partner, London UK
- Completion: 2002
- Client: Ministry of Information and the Arts, Singapore
- Scope of work: Steel structure, glazing
- Cladding: 10.730 m² insulated glass
- Type of Structure: double layer MERO space frame
"The Esplanade" is a multi-activity performing arts center for the staging of a wide variety of art events and performances within a total ground floor area of 111,108 spm. It consists of two major theater buildings and serveral outdoor perfomance spaces.
"The Esplanade" occupies a four hectare site between Marina Center and Marina Bay. The steel structure is a double-layered space frame with two directions of its triangular external grid folloing exactly a predefined network of rhombi with constant edge lengths of 1.5m and a third direction of lines of varying length, which enable adapting the grid to the free-form surface. In the structure, the external grid has been executed in the MERO bowlnode system with square hollow sections of 60 x 60 mm in various wall thicknesses.
The internal sparse grid and the bracing elements interconnecting internal and external layers have been realized in the classical MERO spherical node and circular tubes system, which vary from 60 - 150 mm with various wall thicknesses.
The overall geometry of the roof envelopes falls in a category of free-form surfaces, which are common in the computer aided design of cars and aircraft fuselages.
The glazing triangular panes are made of 29 mm insulating glass and are laid directly onto the external square sections via a fixing, sealing and draining system with additional aluminium fixtures at the corners and at intermediate points. The total number of panes amounts to 10,512 summing up to a total of 10,731 sqm and the linear joints between the panels amount to 27 kilometers of sealing sections.
