I'm here at one of Singapore's favourite social media hot spots, the HSBC Rain Vortex at Jewel Changi Airport.
I mean look at this place, it's so beautiful, it's so serene definitely a place to
check out, and your social media feed was probably flooded with posts of this when it first opened.
I think it's still a must-post spot for both tourists and locals alike, but how much do we
really know about it?
Today we're gonna go behind the feed for an insider experience.
I'm here with Fithri today, who is going to take us around Jewel Changi Airport.
We are here at the HSBC Rain Vortex. I don't see anything happening yet,
what time does it start?
First of all welcome to Jewel Changi Airport, Naomi.
And you have rightly pointed out, the Rain Vortex show doesn't start until 10 a.m.
Fortunately, I have my iPad with me, the iPad allows me to switch on the Rain Vortex remotely.
So it controls the flow of water, it controls even things like the light and sound show, which unfortunately today I'm not able to show.
You're serious about this right, like as in literally with the touch of a button?
Yes with a touch of a button the Rain Vortex will be switched on. So Naomi would you like to start the fountain?
Yes!
Okay what you do is you press this and you select the show
and then you press the play button once.
And once that is selected... I'm very nervous to press okay
and within a short few minutes, you will see the Rain Vortex switched on.
Oh wow
This is so pretty!
I forget how beautiful it is.
If we are lucky, we'll see a rainbow there.
It's only when the sun is shining at a certain angle and when you switch on the Rain Vortex for the first time.
I think I'm gonna go home and brag about the fact that I just turned on the HSBC Rain Vortex with a touch of a button.
But yeah, everyone's going to be so jealous but nonetheless, whoever comes here they're still going to appreciate it, either way,
it's just I have one more thing cooler to say.
Fithri, I know most of us see the finale, you know to the HSBC Rain Vortex, but how does it really work?
The Rain Vortex, which is the largest indoor waterfall, spans from the roof of the dome down to the basement water tank
where the water gets recirculated out again into a continuous flow.
To achieve the circular and very even flow of the water that you see here today,
there are a lot of structural and mechanical elements to it.
For one, the water is pumped externally out of the building and through the fins into the circular opening of the dome
which is what we call the oculus.
The oculus then distributes the water into what we see here today as a fountain.
So when you talk about fins, are those the ones that I'm seeing right there?
Yeah, those are the fins. Those actually conceal the pipes.
What happens when there is a heavy downpour?
Does this mean that the fountain gets turned off and the rain still comes to the oculus?
Yep, when the downfall is particularly heavy the rain vortex will switch off by itself and the rain will take over the fountain
and you will still see the same effect as you see here today.
As beautiful as this place is, I know it takes a lot of work to maintain it.
How much maintenance do you need, and do you have to close down this entire place in order to really do a clean sweep?
We actually have to do different kinds of maintenance, depending on the different maintenance, the frequency is different.
So we have a six-monthly maintenance and a yearly maintenance.
During this period, the Rain Vortex will unfortunately have to be switched off.
Depending on the nature of maintenance for maybe about three days to up to a week.
And during this period we also take the opportunity to clean all the necessary tanks
and do testing to the water quality to ensure it meets health and safety standards.
Fithri I noticed there is a flat bed surrounding the fountain. Is it just for aesthetic purposes or is there a function?
The flat bed that you see here is actually called the reflective pool.
It actually serves two functions. One, it catches the evaporation from the fountain,
secondly, it prevents members of public to get too near to the fountain.
The water that you see here, it then flows down to the acrylic panel
and creates the water skin effect which can be observed from basement two.
Now I know in certain parts of the world if tourists or locals see a fountain there's a tendency to throw in a coin for good luck
does it happen here because I don't see any coins
around this area so I'm guessing people don't do that.
For one, we don't encourage our guests to throw anything beyond the glass boundaries
so we do that by having signage and even getting our experience agents to remind our guests when they do their rounds.
In addition, we also have virtual boundary lines that are drawn on the glass bollards
so in the event that there's anybody that crosses over this boundary, we will then activate a response and we'll advise them accordingly.
So what we also do is actually ensure that the maintenance of this is up kept
so we remove any remnants every other day to prevent anyone to think that it's an acceptable act.
But just for the dollars and cents, how many coins do you collect?
How much money do you make off the fountain and what do you do with the money?
Okay, the amount is not something that I can actually describe but...
Oops!
But what we do is we donate this, whatever that we collect.
Oh, you want me to sing?
*The itsy bitsy spider climbed up the water spout down came a...*
There is a robot...that's been making his rounds, tell us about this robot bunny
because it's been talking, it's been singing, but I want to know what this robot is for.
You have spotted our most popular robot.
So we use various forms of autonomous technology to help us in our day-to-day operations.
So what you have here is the scrub robot, so what it does is that it goes around the Forest Valley,
it scrubs and helps us clean and sweep the evaporation from the fountain.
So apart from this robot, we have a variety of robots that we use. We have one that does traffic marshaling,
we also have one that delights our guests at level five as well.
So when we first started the robot was quite plain-looking.
What we realized was that people tend to not really take notice of cleaning equipment going around
but when we started to dress it up we realized that it became more interactive and it could somehow do its job better.
So this is how all the robots now, serving Forest Valley have different personas and different colours as well.
If I press this button, what's it going to do?
It's going to talk to you, you can try.
Ouch!
Ouch, it said ouch!
So, Naomi, the next thing I want to show you is the basement three pump room.
This is where the muscles and the brains of the Rain Vortex are.
So this is an area that is not usually accessible to members of public but I think it's pretty cool for you to see it.
Let's do this.
So here we are at the basement three pump room, this is where all the pumps and controls are.
So we have controls like the lighting control panels, the electrical control panels, everything that powers the Rain Vortex.
You can imagine the pumps like the muscles of Rain Vortex, while the controls are like the brain.
I understand the water flows from the top of the dome all the way down to the basement where the tank should be
I don't see a tank so my question would be, where is the water stored?
So Naomi behind you is actually the water tank, you can imagine yourself being in a water tank
but you are sitting in a space that has been cut out to arrange for the pumps.
So the pumps that you see here recirculate the water that is collected behind the tanks. It pushes up the water to level five
where it eventually ends up as part of the Rain Vortex.
This is usually a side that we don't really see, I guess the beauty of it is that we get to see both sides of the coin.
We get to see what social media often portrays the Rain Vortex to be, but then there's also a practical side to it
and I think that often is something that we should appreciate more.
I've been to the Rain Vortex a few times, but I've never actually taken any photos around this area
so Fithri has given me the best spot at Jewel Changi Airport to take beautiful photos.
So Naomi we are at the Level 5 Canopy Park specifically the Discovery Slides. You are at one of the highest points in Jewel
and today you can actually have a very good bird's eye view of the Rain Vortex.
Tell me about it, this is like next level. I've never been to the Canopy Park before and just seeing the
Rain Vortex from this angle is pretty spectacular, you get to see the curvature of the vortex
you also get to see how the water is just funnelling down towards the basement.
You really also get to have a bird's eye view of everything including the Shiseido forest.
So it's just really nice and very holistic especially if you want to make a day out of it.
Finally taken some selfies, I have to say it's quite worth it.
Although Fithri for the Canopy Park, you need to pay an admission fee for this.
Yup.
Where would be a good spot to take photos without having to pay?
Let me show you somewhere.
We are here now today at level four, Fun Toast.
This is actually a very popular spot with the staff. This table here is usually where I sit to get my morning coffee.
It gives you a very beautiful view of the Rain Vortex especially in the morning.
Pretty sweet spot. Now you'll just have to fight it out with members of the public like me
because we're definitely going to exercise this tip.
We've come to the end of today's episode. Personally the Rain Vortex has taken on a new meaning for me.
I never knew so many of these little details go into creating something as majestic as this.
So the next time you come here and you take a simple photo, remember that there are a lot of people behind it
creating something beautiful for you.
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I'll catch you in the next one!