Safdie - designed airport, Singapore. Photo: Courtesy.

Noted Israeli-born, US-based architect, Moshe Safdie has received the go-ahead to design a massive and dramatic addition to Singapore’s Changi Airport, entitled “Project Jewel,” Israel’s Walla News said Wednesday.

The new 134-thousand sq.-mtr. facility will include shops, leisure and entertainment facilities, and will be located adjacent to the three existing terminals at the airport, which currently attract more than 53 million passengers a year.

Safdie previously designed Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, which also features a central waterfall surrounded by duty-free shopping and dining courts – but on a far smaller scale.

In the last two decades, Singapore has become an important focus of Safdie’s work, which includes a marina hotel which opened in 2011, and which has become a symbol of Singapore’s port.

Safdie was responsible for some of the most important and most impressive buildings in Israel, including the new Yad Vashem museum and the magnificent David’s Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem, the nearby Mamilla Promenade and IDF Square, also in the capital.

“This project redefines and reinvents what airports are all about,” Safdie said of the project.

“The new paradigm represented by Jewel Changi Airport is to create a diverse and meaningful meeting place that serves as a gateway to the city and country, complementing commerce and services with attractions and gardens for passengers, airport employees, and the city at large,” he said.

Watch an architectural rendering of the design’s features: