The Floating Restaurants “Solar Orchid” by SPARK Architects
As Singapore is a city that includes both the street food heritage and beautiful waterfront, SPARK Architects propose a new type of restaurants that are not on waterfront but they are floated on water. They called it: Solar Orchid project, a mobile, reconfigurable and sustainable floating cooked-food center. It is a modular design of multiple floating units of restaurants, each unit houses a different street food purveyor. Those units can be clustered together depending on their location. Due to their self-contained they can be totally disappeared acting like they didn’t exist. The design feature of this project is the presence of inflated pillow-top with thin-film photovoltaic cells in the protective canopy that make it a solar-energy generator, powering the restaurant’s built-in exhaust, water, gas, electrical, waste collection, and water recycling services.
©SPARK
Project info :
Architect : SPARK Architects
Location : Singapore
Year : 2014
all images courtesy of SPARK architects
Madeline Brooks is a Projects Editor at Arch2O, where she has been shaping and refining architectural content since March 2024. With over a decade of experience in editorial work, she has curated, revised, and published an array of projects covering architecture, urbanism, and public space design. A graduate of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, Madeline brings a strong academic foundation and a discerning editorial eye to each piece she oversees. Since joining Arch2O, she has played a pivotal role in shaping the platform’s editorial direction, with a focus on sustainability, social relevance, and cutting-edge design. Madeline excels at translating complex architectural ideas into clear, engaging stories that resonate with both industry professionals and general readers. She works closely with architects, designers, and global contributors to ensure every project is presented with clarity, depth, and compelling visual narrative. Her editorial leadership continues to elevate Arch2O’s role in global architectural dialogue.