The Heeren

The Heeren stands at the junction of Orchard and Cairnhill Road – right in the heart of Singapore’s most visited square mile. 

Its location puts you amidst a dozen major hotels, cinemas, the affluent Cairnhill district and of course along Singapore’s busiest shopping and entertainment street, Orchard Road. 

The Somerset and Orchard MRT stations, taxi stands and buses connect you to virtually all other parts of Singapore.

The Heeren, a 14-storey office tower atop a six-storey retail podium, was built in 1997 specifically to house stores catering to youths. In 2009, DP Architects completed an extension hosting an outdoor refreshment area and urban verandah along the Orchard Road frontage, further establishing the mall’s presence at the level of the sidewalk. 

The design is calibrated to offer an intimate relationship between pedestrian and architecture: the traveller does not pass by The Heeren; rather, he passes under it and through it as angled glass kiosks, an overhead urban verandah, and an outer glass rain screen work together to encapsulate a triple-height sidewalk space. An undulating glass façade incorporates the fluidity and movement of foot traffic. Performing jointly as rail and rain screen, the glazing is segmented and detailed with glazed fins and point connections, relating the sweeping curves more acutely to the scale of the human body. By condensing vertical supports in three clusters to enclose food and beverage kiosks serviceable to the sidewalk and upper verandah, the architects have freed up large, uninterrupted spaces for outdoor dining. The kiosks are angled, clad in LED-backed glass, and mounted with plasma screens to produce a visual dynamism directed towards the regional youth population.