Prior to the surge of COVID-19 in 2020, Changi International Airport was ranked as the 'world's best airport', registering a record of 65.6 million passenger movements in 2019. At a time of intense global competition in the aviation industry, Changi has been delivering strategies to sustain its reputation as an innovative transportation hub. Exceeding John Kasarda's idea of 'aerotropolis', over three decades Changi has evolved into something more than a cluster of aviation-oriented businesses. The transnational capitalist class of international travellers is provided with a high level of services, facilities, and amenities, accessing the entertainment and consumeristic experience, intrinsic to Singapore. Its latest addition designed by Safdie Architects, the multi-awarded Jewel (2014-19), is a new concept of airport facility informed by an experiential approach where a multistorey shopping mall is integrated to a lush tropical forest and capped by a funnel-like glazed skin. The space is cut through by a light railway suspended in the mall's void, in continuous transit. Combined with the central iconic waterfall, the rhythm of the train evokes a sense of relentless precision and motion, characteristic of the 'engine' that regiments the entire city-state of Singapore. Transcending the airport boundaries, Changi represents a staged introduction to the city in which it now seems naturally embedded. Adjacent to the arrival area of Terminal 1, the funnel-like glazed structure is a threshold 'where the world meets Singapore, and Singapore meets the world', to the point that 'it becomes hard to say where exactly the airport ends, and the city begins.'
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