Singapore’s incredible green hotel is a glimpse of the future today

The hotel

The Parkroyal Collection, Pickering, Singapore

Green scene - the Parkroyal Collection Pickering.

Check-in

Cascading foliage, bulbous curves: first-timers do a double-take when they arrive at this part five-star luxury hotel, part futuristic forest, designed by world-renowned architects WOHA. While the check-in desk is ostensibly unremarkable, take a closer look. There are no cut flowers in the foyer (only terrariums or potted plants are allowed here), water is bubbling nearby and is that a natural breeze you can feel in that comfortably cool corridor while downtown Singapore swelters outside?

The look

This “hotel in a garden” is smack bang in the centre of the city and, some would say, smack bang in the future. But it’s a future that looks more rosy than many may envisage thanks to this 367-room hotel’s full embrace of sustainability and innovation since it opened in 2013. It’s an ethos that keeps on giving, with energy-saving features throughout the startling undulating design (it was inspired by Balinese rice paddies). The hotel’s leafy curves make for a new way of living in the built world, with the hotel housing 15,000 square metres of high-rise lush gardens, waterfalls and planter walls, making up more than twice the building’s total land area.

Birdcage cabanas by the infinity pool.

This greenery absorbs heat, shades hard surfaces and improves air quality, while rain harvesting, solar power, a farm on the rooftop to supply the kitchens and high-performance glass that cuts air-conditioning costs and allows rooms to open to sun-lit corridors adds to the green cred. But five-star fundamentals are also all here: the Collection Club lounge offers cocktails and canapes while on the “Wellness Floor”, the outdoor infinity pool among the highrise jungle interspersed with colourful birdcage-cabanas is an Insta-savvy delight.

The room

Suite dreams.

Our 48-square-metre Urban Suite leaves us in no doubt where we are, with bird’s-eye views of the Singapore skyline and the tai chi in Hong Lim Park through floor-to-ceiling windows which are not tinted, allowing maximum daylight while minimising solar heat. Privacy is attained via blinds at the flick of a switch. There’s a separate living area with a work desk, sofa and TV plus another opposite the king bed. The marble bathroom has double vanities, a filtered water dispenser to refill bottles and separate bath (with headrest), shower room and toilet. There’s plenty of luggage space, a pod-coffee maker and teas, plus a minibar with snacks and drinks, including Remedy immunity-boosting tonics for the jet-lagged.

Food + wine

Rainwater harvesting, solar power, cascading plants: a hotel of the future.

Chinatown is a short walk away, but this is Singapore, so you are never far from something tasty and memorable. Try any number of Hawker centres, hit up Little India for a curry or head to the nearby Singapore River for restaurants and bars. We eat in one night at Lime Restaurant which is celebrating all things lobster and realise we are in for something special when guests arrive with BYO bibs. There is lobster bisque, lobster thermidor, green curry lobster, lobster au natural, barbecued lobster – too good and too much. Another buffet, this time for breakfast, is at the hotel’s Collection Club Breakfast. A refreshing mint tea and Ali Nazik in Bussorah Street, near the street-art hub of Arab Street is excellent.

Out + About

Curves rule in this hotel that has fully embraced sustainability.

MRT stations and buses are right here, so you can be at the waterfront and nightlife at Clarke Quay and Boat Quay in minutes. Singapore has many delights: the Night Safari, the Botanic Gardens, Gardens By the Bay. We spend a morning in Arab Street where fun (albeit sanctioned) street art rubs up against carpet shops, boutiques and pide as well as the spectacular Masjid Sultan or Sultan Mosque. It’s been a long time between Slings for us, so we head to Raffles where everything is at it should be at the famed Long Bar: the sling machine, the bags of peanuts on the bar, their shells on the floor and the Maugham on the wall.

It’s a jungle in there.

The Verdict

This is five-star luxury with bonus wow factor and a conscience.

Our rating out of five

★★★★★

Essentials

3 Upper Pickering Street, Singapore. See panpacific.com From $665 a night.

The writer stayed as a guest of the hotel and Norwegian Cruise Line

Highlight

The outdoor infinity pool with its futuristic bird-cage cabanas among high-rise greenery.

Lowlight

High standards like these can’t help but shine a light on others - Raffles, those plastic straws have to go.