Sky Habitat, in an attempt to reinvent high-rise upper-middle-income urban housing, Safdie Architects has designed the Sky Habitat in Singapore. Instead of creating a series of towers that share common amenities on the ground level, the design features a singular, interconnected clustering of terraced apartments with lush garden space. Echoing hillside developments, the complex comes together as a village-like clustering of residential units, integrating architecture and plant life into a singular experience.
© Edward Hendricks
Safdie Architects have been on a decades-long exploration, creating a series of structures produced of nestled forms of fractal geometry in built space. This project follows the same characteristics to produce a 38-story habitat-housing complex.
© Edward Hendricks
Shared spaces manifest in the form of generous community gardens and outdoor spaces on the ground and in the air. For more than half of the individual residences also have personal roof terraces and gardens. Approximately 72 percent of the site above the sunken parking podium is developed into a series of lush gardens, outdoor even rooms, swimming pools, and walking paths.
© Edward Hendricks
The overall mass is porous and open allowing air to breeze through and the light to penetrate the interior. The highly rationalized structure maximizes air movement and affords cross-ventilation and multiple exposures to every unit, which creates more comfortable living conditions in Singapore’s tropical climate. With these design decisions, the exterior views for families and for the community spaces is also maximized, resulting in a more humane and delicate urban fabric than is usual in the traditional apartment building.
Project info:
Architects: Safdie Architects
Country: Singapore, CapitaLand
Area: 130000 ft²
Year: 2015
Photographs: Edward Hendricks
Landscape Architect: Coen + Partners
Executive Landscape Architect: Coen Design International, Pte Ltd Singapore
Mechanical & Electrical Engineer: Squire Mech Pte Ltd
Architect In Charge: Charu Kokate, Jaron Lubin, Greg Reaves
Design Team: Howard Bloom, Chris Guignon, Jennifer Hardy, Dan Lee, Damon Sidel, Temple Simpson
Executive Architect: DCA Architects Pte Ltd
Structural Engineers: RSP Architects Planners & Engineers Pte Ltd
Client: CapitaLand
Courtesy of Safdie Architects
Kristin Hoover is an editor at Arch2O and a proud graduate of Virginia Tech. Since joining in July 2014, she has authored over 200 insightful articles covering everything from adaptive reuse and cultural centers to eco-buildings and urban infrastructure . With a passion for architectural storytelling, Kristin skillfully curates and crafts compelling narratives that bring design innovation to life. Her editorial work reflects a broad yet finely honed interest in how architecture intersects with society, technology, and the environment—making her a key voice shaping Arch2O’s explorations of contemporary built form.