Biopolis is a biomedical Research & Development hub located at One-North in Singapore built to house key public and private biomedical research institutes and organizations. Occupants of the campus include Chromos, Helios, Centros, Genome, Matrix, Nanos and Proteos, key biomedical players from the private sector.  The buildings on the Biopolis Campus will accommodate headquarter spaces for single tenant users as well multi-tenanted speculative laboratory facilities for users as small as 200GSM in some  cases.

The Biopolis master plan was developed by Zaha Hadid in 2001.  The overall plan promotes a flowing ground form, geo-rock-like, undulating terrain and a dramatic profile against the skyline.  The building forms are never rectilinear, signifying the dynamism of the interaction between physical and human force-fields. The Biopolis campus spearheads innovations in environmental performance and sustainability and serves as a test-bed for promising environmental technologies including a district cooling system, pneumatic waste conveyance,  intelligent building automation systems to optimize energy usage and skygardens/ “green” balconies.

The heart of Biopolis campus is the Epicentre, designed to be a hot spot for human interaction.  It strategically funnels the natural breezes into of wind-tunnel movements that effectively cool the public space and allows for a conducive outdoor environment amidst the humid tropical climate.  Public space is treated as a three-dimensional volume (versus a two dimensional surface).  Voids of pocket parks, courtyards, gardens and cuts in the urban fabric further enhance the open space. The voids are key elements in place-making, establishing the logic of the public realm and cultivating patterns of movement and gathering nodes for social life. These  driving concept s are manifested through the Urban Design Guidelines that carry  through the entire campus, defining tightly woven street patterns, uniquely shaped parcel configurations, pedestrian paths, location of public spaces, mid-block connections and landscape patterns.

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A key influence of the overall form is a continuous sloped roof plane concept that unifies the campus of irregular freeform parcels.  The roof plane guideline defines a maximum parapet height datum indicated by roof corner vertices determined relative to the zero level of AMSL.  The geometry of each parcel is made further complex due to the undulating ground plane.

Biopolis is being realized in phases.  Phase 1 was launched in 2003, Phase 2 in 2006, Phase 3 broke ground in 2008 and Phase 4 is pending development. Total build out at Biopolis will be 2,000,000 GSF (about 185,000 GSM).  The research community is expected to grow to some 5,000 scientific researchers as Biopolis expands.

Phase 5 in the Biopolis Expansion, the headquarters for Nucleos Biologics the totals 678,000 GSF (63,000 GSM).   In order to fully understand this project, it must be considered as a unique piece or rock-like chunk of this powerful, three dimensional, highly interactive master plan compositions. The design and development of Biopolis 5 was ruled by the rigorous urban design guidelines established for the overall campus.  A fundamental design challenge was the development of a viable multi-tenant and flexible laboratory facility within these irregular geometries.

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Biopolis 5 was completed in 2014 and achieved the Greenmark Platinum sustainability goal.