With its population jumping from 4 million in 2000 to 5.2 million in 2011 and housing prices rising fast, Singapore needed to expand its supply of public housing at the end of the last decade. But instead of building banal apartment blocks, the city-state's Housing & Development Board (HDB)—which provides public housing for both middle- and working-class residents—hired some of the most talented local architects to create a new generation of subsidized projects that would be greener and built at much higher densities than older ones.
For an area called Dawson, not far from Singapore's downtown, HDB planned three large projects to replace a low-rise housing “estate” razed a decade ago. Two of these complexes—SkyTerrace and SkyVille—are under construction; the third waits to move forward. SCDA Architects, headed by Soo K. Chan, designed SkyTerrace, focusing on the buildings' relationship to an adjacent linear park running along the Alexandra Canal and the need for multigenerational living units. Comprising five towers ranging from 40 to 43 stories and sitting atop a parking podium, the project will offer residents great views from their apartments as well as a series of landscaped spaces flowing over the podium, down to a large courtyard, and into the linear park. Terraces with lush tropical plants will connect the towers at various heights, offering elevated gardens to residents, who begin arriving in early 2015.
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