THE STAR

摘要

In Singapore, there is now a place where you can worship at the altar of consumption, at the feet of a pop idol, or in a megachurch, all under one roof. The Star combines 260,000 square feet of retail space-known as Star Vista-with a 5,000-seat concert hall that is part of the Star Performing Arts Centre, and on Sundays is used by the New Creation Church, a congregation led by the charismatic Pastor Joseph Prince. In a culture in which retail and spectacle have already combined to produce Marina Bay Sands and its three splayed, 50-story towers rising over a casino and supporting a flying pool, the Star's hybrid program and expressive shape are perhaps not so unexpected. What is remarkable is the strength of its imagery, the fluidity with which both the uses and the forms flow into each other, and the amount of open-air civic space the building provides.