Renovation work on Terminal 2 at Singapore’s Changi Airport got underway in January 2020. Three and a half years of construction and a pandemic later, it was finally inaugurated on 1st November 2023. With it, the airport gains 21,000 m2 and expands its capacity by 5 million passengers to a total of 90 million a year. The expansion includes various infrastructures, retail shops, restaurants, double the number of self-service check-in counters, added immigration lounges and, most notably, a series of new digital facilities, “that you need to see”.
Changi Airport Group, developer of Changi’s Terminal 2 expansion, commissioned BOIFILLS Architects for the architectural part of the project, while the digital facilities are the work of design studio Moment Factory. Moment Factory is known for creating “forms of entertainment that offer the world new experiences” (in fact, we saw this in the interior design they created for the Grand Magic Hotel, to which we have already dedicated an article). Moment Factory is responsible for The Wonderfall and Dreamscape, the two new digital installations we’re talking about, attractions in their own right inside Changi Airport.
In the lush embrace of a vertical garden, in the Terminal 2 departures hall, the waters of a cascading waterfall send travellers off, from a colossal LED screen 14m high by 17m wide. It is The Wonderfall. The waterfall, or to be more precise, its image, can be seen from any point in the concourse thanks to the curvature of the screen. Moreover, this image responds dynamically and in real time to the natural changes in lighting, so that it adapts and offers a different visual experience by day or night. Finally, a digital show is triggered at intervals, which they call “Rhythms of Nature”, when the waterfall magically reverses its waters. In this way, The Wonderfall produces a “captivating interplay among the various elements”, as well as the amazement of travellers.
Dreamscape, meanwhile, takes centre stage in the Changi Terminal 2 transit area. An “immersive garden” and a “limitless digital sky” are a source of wonder for travellers passing through the large hall. Thanks to its connection with the airport’s weather system, the sky, in other words. its image, reproduces in real time the daylight or sunrise, the weather conditions outside or a starry sky. But it also offers surprises, such as the passing planes, the flight of birds, or even the slow flight of a hot-air balloon. Suddenly, the sky becomes the surface of the ocean and travellers find themselves submerged beneath fish, or watch the otters swim gracefully from the depths, or see the flat hull of a sampan, a typical Asian boat, rip through the water.
Finally, for those who prefer to walk on the water rather than dive in it, another feature of Dreamscape is worth mentioning. This is a covered pond with a transparent platform. When you look beyond your feet, you encounter the whimsical, almost hypnotic evolutions of the multicoloured fish that inhabit it.
Oh, and if you want an overview of Changi’s Terminal 2, don’t miss this VÍDEO.
Sources: Changi Airport, Now Boarding. Images: Changi Airport Group.
