In completed projects like the Met in Bangkok and SkyVille@Dawson in Singapore, WOHA has demonstrated it can create high-density complexes where breezeways and a rich variety of outdoor spaces—both at ground level and above—subvert the 20^th-century model of hermetically sealed buildings continually pumped with air-conditioning. As seen in all of the projects in this exhibition, Wong and Hassell love to carve out spaces in their buildings for residents to enjoy the outdoors, in the process encouraging the kind of intense communal life that has traditionally made Asian cities so vibrant. The goal is to design housing complexes that are “woven together socially by layers of parks and gardens,” says Wong.

While the early Modernists brought a seriousness of purpose to high-density housing that often made it dry and clinical, WOHA designs with exuberance—using snaking balconies and colorful panels to give life to their buildings no matter how big.  The installation at the Skyscraper Museum underscores the lush and energetic nature of the work. Beautiful, plexiglass models—one for each project—help visitors understand the formal complexities of the buildings, and recent drone videos add a cinematic quality to the exhibition. Sometimes, though, it’s hard to tell if the footage is real or computer generated, which injects a surreal note to an architecture that is already a bit wild by American standards.

Drone footage of PARKROYAL on Pickering.

Text panels at the start of the exhibit talk a bit about mega-cities in Asia, but it would have been helpful to see some photographs of key projects in these places. One panel acknowledges the influence on WOHA of Paul Rudolph’s innovative towers in Asia, such as the Concourse in Singapore. But showing a few works by Ken Yeang, Soo Chan, and other architects doing high-rise projects in this part of the world would have provided a better context for WOHA’s accomplishments.

Visitors to the show may also wonder if WOHA’s ideas are transferable to cities in North America or Europe. “In New York, we’re looking to develop projects with smaller living unites and higher densities,” says Carol Willis, director of the Skyscraper Museum.  “WOHA has done this and made it attractive by adding amenities such as gardens and social spaces,” she adds. Changes would need to be made to accommodate cities in more temperate climates, where shade—for example—isn’t as welcome as it is in Southeast Asia, admits Wong. But the bigger message of designing for much higher densities is applicable to other parts of the world, he states. “Our cities are based on 20^th-century ideas and geared to the automobile,” says Wong. “We need to turn horizontal cities into vertical ones.”