McDonald's may be bad for you and bad for workers, but the burger-slinging behemoth has made a few intriguing architectural strides in recent memory. The latest marvel of design built under its golden-arched auspices has a grass-covered roof, a thicket of bamboo between drive-thru windows, and sits right in the middle of Singapore's Jurong Central Park. Encircled in a riot of foliage, the chain restaurant blends into the surrounding parkland.
Designed by the local firm ONG&ONG, the McDonald's branch features a green roof that diligently soaks up enough UV radiation to reduce the ambient temperature inside. That same verdant canopy is also fitted with rainwater retention trays that provide much-needed H2O for the surrounding plants; presumably, though, the place still serves bottles of Dasani.
This architectural one-off may not be as upscale as Burger King's recent Singaporean foray or as eco-chic as Daniel Libeskind's roof-gardened towers there, but when humans eventually disappear, and nature starts to take back our humble structures in some post-apocalyptic film-come-true, it'll fit right in.
—Spencer Peterson
· Singapore McDonalds Unveils a Green Roof Designed to Sustain Local Wildlife [Inhabitat]
· All McDonald's coverage [Curbed National]