DUO Story
DUO is located within Bugis, an established arts, educational, heritage and cultural district. It is home to more than 20 historical sites and national monuments, and plays host to an exciting variety of events such as the monthly Bugis Arts Flea Market, and the annual Singapore Night Festival. Located near the Singapore Art Museum, LASALLE College of the Arts, and the Waterloo Street Arts Belt, DUO neighbours this exciting creative world.
With a distinctive, modern design that seamlessly harmonises the development and its surrounding environment, the spirit of DUO is one of inclusiveness and symbiosis. A bold vision that helps bring to life the Urban Redevelopment Authority's (URA) plan for a vibrant mixed-use cluster within the Ophir-Rochor corridor to complement the Marina Bay and Raffles Place business districts.
The Ophir-Rochor corridor also hosts the active arts, cultural, entertainment, and educational hub of Bugis and the historic district of Kampong Glam, a historical Malay-Arab conservation district with a rich history. The colourful shophouses were once home to a multi-ethnic community of early settlers to Singapore more than a hundred years ago. Today, boutiques, art galleries, and restaurants still intermingle with traditional businesses like carpet retailers and spice traders.
Embracing this vision is Ole Scheeren’s iconic design. DUO not only redefines the city skyline, but its courtyard and plazas hosts a variety of pedestrian oriented activities for its community as the civic nexus of Bugis – a throwback to the heydays of this charming and eclectic district where a vibrant community once gathered in similar enclaves.
DUO TOWER
DUO GALLERIA
A boutique retail plaza incorporating 56,000 square feet of restaurants and retail offerings, set within a rich park-like environment.
RESIDENCES
ANDAZ SINGAPORE
Sustainability
DUO is designed to meet Singapore’s Building & Construction Authority (BCA) Green Mark Scheme, an initiative to shape more environmentally friendly buildings and to promote sustainability in the built environment. The development achieved a Green Mark Platinum rating for DUO Tower and DUO Galleria, and a Green Mark Gold Plus rating for DUO Residences and its 5-star hotel in the BCA Awards 2013. In fact, DUO Tower is the only building in the micro-market to be certified as Green Mark Platinum.
The development incorporates environmental strategies through passive and active energy-efficient design and naturally ventilated spaces. With direct access to Bugis MRT Station, covered walkways to major bus routes and 66 sheltered bicycle parking lots, DUO Tower also offers many environmentally friendly options to arrive and leave work.
ENERGY EFFICIENT LIGHT FITTINGS
The use of special fluorescent and LED lights, along with motion control and automatic lux level adjustment, saves energy.SOLAR HEAT REDUCTION
The honeycomb façade and balcony act as natural sun shading, which together with the high performance glazing significantly reduce solar heat gain.WATER USAGE MONITORING
A combination of rainwater harvesting and private sub-meters provide class leading water management.LUSH GREENERY PODIUM
100% landscape replacement reduces temperature whilst increasing oxygen levels in the building’s vicinity.NATURALLY VENTILATED RETAIL CORRIDOR
Designed to allow cooling land breezes to permeate the development, reducing energy consumption and bringing the outdoors, indoors.OTHER ENERGY EFFICIENT FEATURES
Heat recovery air conditioning units, ductless fans for basement ventilation, along with motion sensors for the escape staircase, half landings and common toilets provide further efficacies.ENERGY EFFICIENT LIFTS & ESCALATORS
The lifts are equipped with a regenerative lift system which has the capability to capture waste energy generated from the lift motor when it slows down (brakes) and feed back to the building grid for re-use in other utilities. Furthermore, the lift cars will be installed with LED lighting and sleep mode function which will allow the ventilation and lighting in the lift car to be turned off when there are no calls for the lifts. The escalators with slow down feature will also be implemented in this development.DUO Twin Towers designer Büro Ole Scheeren wins the CTBUH Urban Habitat Award 2021
Iconically designed by Büro Ole Scheeren, DUO Twin Towers has been awarded the CTBUH’s 2021 Urban Habitat Award. This award acknowledges the design’s significant contribution to DUO’s urban context and affirms DUO’s socially and environmentally responsible approach to design.
As one of Singapore’s landmarks, DUO comprises two cultural towers: a residential building and one containing a hotel and office spaces. DUO’s spatial configuration shapes a coherent urban framework together with the neighbouring buildings while also creating a permeable space that merges green spaces with a diverse social activity. DUO is home to a series of elevated public spaces, communal terraces and a publicly accessible roofscape and viewing deck. Accomplishing a 100% landscape offset, DUO creates new green spaces equivalent to the site’s unbuilt area and DUO’s concave shape channels wind flow to the building, fostering a cool microclimate.
In the process of designing DUO, Büro Ole Scheeren’s core vision of DUO was to “create a new sense of urban habitat in which humans, architecture and nature can coexist in productive and socially responsible ways”. His aim was for DUO to repair a broken piece of the city and celebrate public life as the central quality of a socially responsible urban environment. Since its completion in 2018, DUO has proven itself to be a dynamic place that enables social interaction while achieving high levels of sustainability goals.
