Travel

​Here’s a trick question: How do you improve on being the world’s best? With a 40-metre tall indoor waterfall is how. Well, not just the waterfall but the structure that is Jewel Changi is how Changi Airport hope to secure their spot as World’s Best Airport for the seventh year in a row.

With a distinctive donut-shaped vaulted steel and glass exterior made of 9,000 unique glass pieces, this gem will build upon Changi’s already impressive offerings but isn’t just there for the looks – it will also serve as a connecting point for three of Changi’s four terminals.

What’s clear is its commitment to greenery – it will seamlessly combine five stories of gardens, retail and dining, with a hotel to boot. Conceived by award-winning architect (and brain behind the design of Marina Bay Sand’s iconic Sky Pool) Moshe Safdie as a ‘magical garden’, he added that “It makes us rethink what urban centres could be like if we stretch our thinking a bit”. Perfectly encapsulating this is the Forest Canopy, which sits on the top floor of the Jewel and where alfresco style dining and 300 shops will sit amongst 13,000 square metres of park.

But it’s not all fun and games above ground – Jewel Changi will also boast five underground stories of retail and airport facilities and is expansive and varied enough to potentially be considered a destination in its own right, with a view to attract both locals and visitors. Early check-in facilities will allow visiting tourists to enjoy the Jewel and all it has to offer. Elaborating on his design, Safdie adds that it will be “light-filled, giving you this impression of being outside, but it’s completely indoors.”

This much is clear – if all goes to plan, whoever visits Jewel Changi will be treated to an interior experience like no other, which may put you in danger of missing your flight.

Source: Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop/CNN Newsource

Related: World’s Busiest International Air Route is Here in Southeast Asia​