Eclipse (formerly known as Sandcrawler), a nine-storey complex, was the regional headquarters and production base of Lucasfilm Singapore. The design for the project not only enjoys this ambiguity but also seeks a solution which celebrates the diversity.
The plan of the building is an extended and bent V shape with the core close to the base of the V in response to the shape of the site and the desire to allow landscape to flow under the building.
The tapering wings are offices and are 19 metres at their extremities. On the fifth and sixth floor is a double height space with a 100-seat cinema which is fronted by a giant shiny black version of Darth Vader’s helmet. The top floor has the quality of a warehouse with a very high sloping ceiling festooned with pipes and the underside of an enigmatic staircase.
Enclosed by the open wings is a landscape lush with foliage from Muar and Perak in nearby Malaysia. Overhead a third of the V shaped gap between the office wings is crossed by glazing and long aluminium louvres. On either side the elevations step down, each floor overhanging the next and the ends of the wings have a more exaggerated stepping, emphasised by what are effectively small open greenhouses draping hanging planting in a series of cascades.
