teddY-risatioN™

Yeap I went to Changi Airport Terminal 3 Open House this monday! It was open for public visit and guided tours since the 12th of November till the 9th of December, so if you’re so moved by all the photos and panoramas in the post, and you happen to be in Singapore (or if you don’t mind rushing down to Singapore by plane or an alien spaceship), be sure to check it out before it closes again! It’ll be open in 9th of January 2007 again, but this time it’ll be for real and you will not be able to access the transit area unless you have a passport and an air ticket in hand.

Most of the photos in this post are clickable (and all of them happen to be panoramas), so just look at the bottom of the photo to see whether you can view it in a larger 900px resolution or not. Anyway for the very first time I decided to keep the description short and small, so that it will not obstruct your view of the panorama.

To keep the post short, I’ve tucked the rest under the Read More tag. So click it if you want to get amazed

My day started off after I went back for a short nap after sending my friend off at the same airport in the wee hours of Monday morning. The first thing I saw after alighting the Changi Airport MRT Station is this people mover:

Since I went there in the morning there isn’t a lot of people around. It’s actually a good thing, because I won’t get really weird stares from people as I take photos! The sheer size of the ticketing area of Terminal 3 impressed me so much my jaws fell onto the ground with a loud thud.

Here is a panorama from the third level, overlooking the ticketing counters on the second level. It is very spacious inside, and very bright as well because the entire building taps a lot on natural light. They have this amazing aluminium louvres on the top so they can reflect an optimum amount of sunlight into the building to save energy

And here is a photo showing the magnificient computer-controlled skylighting system! There are little peforated panels hanging under the skylights to ensure that natural light is diffused efficiently throughout the terminal:

On of the most ground-breaking feat of the construction of this terminal is that they’ve fused nature and technology together, although both of them seems to be antagonistic of each other in our eyes. They’ve got this 300m long Green Wall with 25 species of creepers on it, to provide temperature moderation and a breath of fresh air for arriving tourists.

And back to the entrance of the airport, you’re greeting with greeny palms and crystal clear glass panels! The tour guide in Terminal 3 told me that the designers took into account clarity as part of the terminal’s design - to make as little visual obstruction as possible by using high tensile strength, tamper-resistance glass panels. The total gross floor area of the terminal can over 63 football fields, even though the entire structure only sit on a site of 10 football fields.

Later in the morning I paid S$3 for a guided-tour in the restricted transit area. This is where the real fun begins because after this open house period, only people with valid passports and air tickets will be able to visit the transit area! There is this really nice woody-coloured waterfall at the departure hall, and the tour guide told me that it has a feng-shui element in it - the direction of the waterfall is pointed away from the gates, indicating that it is meant to attract more visitors to stay in Singapore. That’s just so cool!

The tour guide brought us into the viewing gallery where tourists will have an awesome view of the runway, without the obstructing sunshades which will be seen by the public viewing gallery one floor above:

There is also a large Koi pond that awaits tourists.

Changi Airport Terminal 3 also takes on a unique design - instead of having individual holding area for each gate, the B wing of the terminal has a common holding area for gates B1 to B4. Gates B2 and B4 are constructed specially for the latest, newest Airbus A380 model due to its sheer size, although they can still be used for smaller models as well. The common holding area has really comfy carpet floors (I felt the urge to lie on them so badly!) and ambient lighting from lights housed in coccoon-shaped containers to diffuse light more efficiently:

We then went to the luggage collection area where you can see the entire green wall with its lovely, quaint waterfalls in their full glory! The luggage belts wound around little gardens which house trees and other plants, and the floor is laid with highly-polished tiles so reflective I thought of checking out the zits on my face by lying on the floor haha!

Here’s a closeup on the waterfall:

And on my way back, I took a photo of the Changi Airport MRT Station. It has a really futuristic design which matches that of Terminal 3.

Hope you’ve enjoyed this upate! See you!