Could the Parkroyal on Pickering be the greenest hotel in Asia?

Amid its abundance of greenery, this hotel adheres to an impressive assortment eco-friendly practices including photo sensors to monitor light levels and minimising water usage by harvesting rain.

Singapore’s pioneering eco-friendly hotel-in-a-garden concept

One of Singapore’s most eco-friendly hotels is The Parkroyal on Pickering, voted Asia’s Leading Green Hotel at the World Travel Awards for the past three years. With lush sky gardens, reflecting pools and cascading vertical greenery, PARKROYAL on Pickering boasts a unique hotel-in-a-garden concept that seamlessly blends environmental principles with elements of nature throughout the property. 

A vegetation-covered oasis in the heart of the business district

One of Singapore’s most eco-friendly hotels is The Parkroyal on Pickering, voted Asia’s Leading Green Hotel at the World Travel Awards for the past three years. 

Approaching the hotel, its greenness is breathtaking. This towering, vegetation-covered oasis in the heart of the business district was conceived with environmental efficiency in mind. 

The hotel features skygardens, waterfalls, planter terraces and cascading vertical greenery, with vegetation cover totalling 15,000 square metres, double the hotel’s total land area.

The plants bring a sense of calm to the busy location. The greenery absorbs heat, provides shade and reduces the need for cooling in guest rooms. 

Director of marketing communi­cations Lee Kin Seng points out the hidden irrigation pipes. “A gravitational water drip system from our rooftop rainwater tank feeds nutrients and water to these plants,” he told the South China Morning Post. “When there’s no rainwater, the system switches to NEWater, Singapore’s recycled water.” 

Source: SouthChinaMorningPost 

The lush greenery hides an array of state-of-the-art technologies

In the vast, triple-height lobby area, the lighting is mostly natural, facilitated by a shallow building depth, while high-performance glass cuts out solar heat. 

A few soft, yellow LED lights inside the lobby, powered by rooftop solar panels, provide additional lighting to boost the health of the indoor vertical gardens.

This was the first development in Singapore built using Cobiax technology—a system that reduces concrete usage by using recycled plastic to create hollow areas within reinforced concrete slabs. 

Every four floors, there is a cantilevered garden terrace jutting out of the building.

The fifth floor is a dedicated wellness space, with a pool, garden lounges and herb garden. The soaring ceiling here allows airflow and helps prevent heat gain to the upper floors.

If this area was not a garden, many rooms could have been added to make money for the hotel. 

Source: SouthChinaMorningPost 

A tropical paradise in the heart of Chinatown

Stepping out of the lift, guests are greeted by an impressive outdoor corridor design, which promotes natural ventilation. 

Open on one side, apart from the cascading vine, the corridor wafts with the sounds and smells of vibrant Chinatown below. 

On the enclosed side of the veranda, vertical garden breezeways link to the next garden terrace, four levels below. 

Opposite a babbling creek, wooden panelled guest room doors, reminiscent of a forest, open into energy efficient rooms.

The hotel aims to meet the tightest controls on water and energy consumption. 

Guest rooms contain recycling bins and drinking water comes in glass containers. 

Designed to allow in daylight and thus save electricity, the floor-to-ceiling windows are not tinted, meaning guests must lower their blinds for total privacy. 

The Parkroyal on Pickering is exceptional in its environ­mental commitment, and other hotels in the Lion City are following suit. 

The Singapore Hotels Association encour­ages establishments to improve their environmental creden­tials with a biennial awards ceremony. The number of hotels receiving the association’s Green Hotel Award increased from 15 in 2009 to 30 in 2017.

Hotels continue to be large consumers of resour­ces, but the industry has the power to reduce carbon footprints. 

For our part, tourists can choose greener stays and expose greenwashing when they encounter it.

Source: SouthChinaMorningPost 

Sustainable Features of the hotel concept of the future

Parkroyal on Pickering has been designed by internationally acclaimed architectural firm WOHA. It features a contemporary hotel-in-a-garden concept that focuses on integrating environmental principles and elements of nature throughout the property.

Parkroyal on Pickering adds a fresh perspective to the future of urban hospitality with a range of innovative sustainability features including:

• The hotel features 15,000 square metres of lush greenery which constitutes more than twice the total land area.
• 51% of guestroom corridors are reminiscent of attractive garden spaces.
• 60kWp solar cells power Singapore’s first zero-energy skygardens.
• Water usage is minimised by rain harvesting and use of NEWater.
• Light, motion and rain sensors regulate the use of precious resources.

A pioneering hotel-in-a-garden concept

Singapore’s highly awarded green hotel breathes new life into urban hospitality with an array of sustainable features.

With lush sky gardens, reflecting pools and cascading vertical greenery, PARKROYAL on Pickering boasts a unique hotel-in-a-garden concept that seamlessly blends environmental principles with elements of nature throughout the property. 

• It saves 32.5 Olympic-sized swimming pools through water conservation annually
• It uses light, motion, and rain sensors to regulate use of precious resources
• staggering 680 households could be powered by its annual energy savings
• and the hotel features an astounding 15,000 square meters of greenery!

The building itself was designed with sustainability in mind. Glass windows reduce the need for indoor lights while an above-ground car park eliminates the need for excavation and extensive mechanical ventilation. And they have removed all single-use plastic from their public areas and meeting spaces.

Source: ParkroyalHotels

The following photos are shared with kind permission by BrightVibes follower Janet Hart

Janet said “This is the hotel me and Hugh stayed at in singapore….totally freaked me out with it’s open corridors and glass walls…”