City of Tomorrow: 8 Stunning Icons of Singapore’s Futuristic Architecture
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Singapore’s architectural landscape reflects a rich fusion of diverse influences. This island city-state boasts a skyline adorned with new skyscrapers, garden homes and innovative designs that respond to cultural traditions and tropical weather. Singapore has also undertaken ambitious public and civic building initiatives to address climate change and rapid growth. By looking to the future of the city and the country, architects are imagining new building forms and spaces, architecture that feels progressive, futuristic and inventive.
Singapore gained independence from Malaysia in 1965 and has since grown into a highly prosperous country. It is not part of any larger nation but stands as an independent and sovereign state. Incorporating design elements from different cultures and regions like Malay, Chinese, Indian, and Western traditions, the city-state’s architecture is iconic and varied. It ranges from vernacular homes and local hybrid shophouses to modern concrete and glass high-rises. Taking a glimpse into the city’s design culture, the following eight projects highlight the futuristic and inspiring architectural icons found across Singapore.
The House of Remembrance
By Neri & Hu, Singapore
Jury Winner, 10th Annual A+Awards, Private House (M 2000 – 4000 sq ft)
Neri&Hu were tasked with creating a private residence that would accommodate three adult siblings while preserving the memory of their childhood home. The previous British colonial bungalow with Malay and Victorian influences inspired the new design. Retaining the pitched roof’s symbolic significance, the two-story house organizes communal spaces around a central garden, serving as a memorial for their late mother. The ground level emphasizes visual transparency, connecting living spaces to the lush perimeter gardens, while sliding glass doors provide cross ventilation and direct access to outdoor spaces.
The upper level, featuring pitched-roof forms, houses private bedrooms and establishes a visual connection between public and private realms. A carved void in the roof volume frames a small tree, symbolizing the central memorial garden. The exterior transitions from smooth to board-formed concrete, emphasizing balconies and sky wells. The circular ground floor circulation enhances the experience, reinforcing the garden’s symbolic role as the heart of the home, providing a return to the center both spiritually and physically.
Learning Hub, Nanyang Technological University
By Heatherwick Studio, Singapore
Heatherwick Studio’s Learning Hub was designed to be a new multi-use building for the NTU campus. The university specifically requested a distinctive design tailored to modern learning approaches. In response, the team crafted a structure that would foster collaboration among students and professors from diverse disciplines. The result is an architecture that blends social and learning areas, creating spaces for spontaneous interactions between students and professors. Twelve towers, each a stack of rounded tutorial rooms, taper inwards at their base around a spacious central atrium.
The Learning Hub aims to serve as a nexus where students in Singapore may encounter potential future business partners or collaborate on innovative ideas. The classrooms were conceived by NTU to support interactive small group teaching and active learning. The rooms boast a flexible layout, allowing professors to customize configurations for enhanced student engagement, and facilitating seamless collaboration among students. Opening onto the shared circulation space around the atrium, the rooms are interspersed with open areas and informal garden terraces, fostering visual connectivity among students while providing spaces for gathering together.
The Discovery Slides
By Carve, Singapore
Carve and Playpoint were the designers behind a new slide attraction inside the Jewel Changi Airport. The attraction, situated in the Canopy Park on the highest level of the new development in front of Terminal 1, is part of a comprehensive project that includes a shopping mall, attraction park and garden. The Canopy Park features over 1,400 trees and palms alongside various other attractions, aiming to enhance the overall airport experience and entice travelers to choose Singapore’s Changi airport over others.
Carve’s original concept for the playground was like a sculpture with carved-out sections revealing a colored interior. The playground serves a dual purpose, acting as both a gem balancing on the fifth ring of Jewel and a hidden slide attraction. The sinuous shell evolved into a polished steel skin. The structure’s continuous form amplifies its surroundings, offering surreal reflections for visitors. The viewing deck provides a vantage point within the complex, attracting crowds, social media enthusiasts and families seeking adventure and play in Singapore. It features four slides, including a family slide, a steep drop slide and two glass-covered spiral slides.
Cornwall Gardens
By CHANG Architects, Singapore
This multi-generational home by CHANG Architects is designed as an open tropical paradise, fostering an I-Thou relationship with nature. The house seamlessly integrates plants, water features and living spaces to share the same space, promoting a sustainable and wellness-oriented environment. The foyer, once plagued by a leaking retaining wall, is transformed into a green courtyard with a waterfall feature, offering a lush welcome to visitors.
Utilizing existing terrain, the house incorporates built-ups as planters for tropical fruit trees, creating a green oasis with landscape decks, cascading planters, and a bio pool. The planted verandahs and planter bridge not only enhance aesthetics but also provide sun-shade and privacy. Serving as a popular gathering spot, the house has attracted biodiversity, embodying a contemporary tropical living experience achieved through collaboration between the client and the design team. It’s neo-tropical approach is emblematic of design ideas and culture in Singapore.
Sky Habitat
By Safdie Architects, Singapore
Safdie Architects have long reimagined what contemporary living environments can be. For Sky Habitat, the team redefined urban living with a three-dimensional matrix of homes. The project features terraces, balconies, and communal gardens that infuse every level with landscape, light, and air. The stepped form mimics a hillside town, providing units with diverse orientations, natural ventilation, and expansive views. In contrast to typical high-density buildings, Sky Habitat prioritizes resident well-being by offering amenities such as swimming pools, playgrounds, gardens and communal spaces for family gatherings.
Three bridging sky gardens connect the towers, creating a network of interconnected streets and terraces in the air, fostering common recreation and congregation spaces. The porous massing allows breezes to flow through, while the stepping geometry provides multiple orientations and spacious private terraces for residents. The ground level, above a sunken parking podium, is transformed into lush gardens, encompassing outdoor event areas, swimming pools, a tennis court and walking paths, making Sky Habitat a harmonious blend of nature and urban living.
Ascent, Singapore Science Park
By S333 and Limelight atelier, Singapore
The building concept for the Ascent Science Park focuses on legibility and drawing visitors in during all hours on the campus. A key part of the conceptual strategy for the mixed-use development building was lighting: varied-height translucent glass modules in the facade spandrel encircling the central courtyard serve as a rainscreen, sheltered arcade, and lighting feature. Designed by UK Architecture firm S333, the guiding concept aimed to create a highly efficient scheme that encourages spill over activities at night.
Ascent consists of office headquarters, retail, restaurants and a pharmacy. These programs are set around courtyards, gardens and plazas; Ascent’s upper levels provide large, deep-plan space for offices and laboratories, while lower levels offer exhibition, hosting and event spaces. Overcoming structural constraints and maximizing tenancy spaces, a row of LED lights, concealed at the top of the openable spandrel capping, directs light downward to the courtyard with minimized hotspots. Ascent Science Park was awarded the Building Construction Authority of Singapore’s Greenmark Platinum award in 2015.
Gardens by the Bay
By WilkinsonEyre, Singapore
Early concept ideas for the masterplan for Gardens by the Bay in Singapore were inspired by the orchid (the national flower of Singapore). WilkinsonEyre, part of the winning team in the design competition, played a pivotal role in creating the Cooled Conservatory Complex. This iconic structure, at the heart of the Bay South Garden, features two of the world’s largest climate-controlled glasshouses.
The Flower Dome showcases a cool-dry Mediterranean Zone, while the Cloud Forest presents a cool-wet tropical montane, highlighting flora susceptible to climate change. The collaborative effort with Grant Associates, Atelier One, and Atelier Ten resulted in a unique design featuring a gridshell and arched steel ribs. The conservatories operate as carbon-positive structures, utilizing bio-mass for building services, contributing to Singapore’s vision of becoming a city-in-a-garden.
Marina One, Singapore
By ingenhoven associates, Singapore
“Marina One” stands as a groundbreaking model for urban living and working, particularly in tropical mega-cities grappling with population growth and climate change. The 400,000-square-meter high-density complex, comprising four high-rise buildings, establishes the “Green Heart” — a multi-story public space showcasing a three-dimensional green oasis inspired by tropical flora diversity. The strategic collaboration between ingenhoven architects and landscape architects Gustafson Porter + Bowman resulted in natural ventilation and an innovative climate strategy, as well as a landscaped area surpassing the original site surface.
Marina One integrates office, residential and retail functions, offering a total of 1,042 city apartments and penthouses. With iconic louvres and lush planting, the building complex enhances the microclimate, fosters biodiversity, and mirrors a rainforest’s vertical climate changes. The “Green Heart” features over 350 plant varieties and 700 trees on a 37,000-square-meter landscaped area, providing a habitat for various animal species. This vibrant hub includes retail spaces, fitness facilities, and dining options, promoting social interaction within a harmonious atmosphere. The design prioritizes energy efficiency and sustainable transportation, with direct connections to mass transit and eco-friendly commuting options.
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The city of Palma has a new landmark, and it isn’t what the general population might expect from the sun-soaked Mallorcan capital, known for the splendor and intricacy of its massive cathedral and the magnificent concentration of modernismo-style buildings (the Catalan equivalent of Art Nouveau). What sets this new residential complex apart isn’t simply its strikingly delicate façade and palpable material approach, but also the design’s dedication sustainability, energy-efficiency and urban integration.
Like a beacon for the future of design, this ten-unit residential building is proudly perched on a highly visible corner in London. The design, which incorporates a variety of different apartment layouts for families of varying sizes, emerged through a rigorous analysis of privacy, daylight and neighboring building forms. The resulting architectural language complements the surrounding context and history. For example, red masonry shingles create an urban composition which is both reminiscent of the surroundings yet distinct.
Vital Brookdale stands as a prime example of affordable Passive House and community-oriented housing, providing 160 affordable housing units and 25,000 square feet (2,320 square meters) of health-centric community space in Brooklyn’s Brownsville neighborhood. This initiative incorporates a 100kW solar photovoltaic system mounted on the roof, a green roof, advanced mechanical systems, top-tier insulation and windows, LED lighting, water fixtures with low flow, and various other energy-efficient features. Meanwhile, inside, materials were selected according to the ease of installation, cost, maintenance and their impact on resident health. The result is a resounding testament to the untapped power of Passive House design in multifamily housing.
A five-story mixed-use development with commercial space on the ground floor and 45 rental units above, this project achieved Passive House certification, utilizes mass timber construction and is an all-electric, Net Zero Ready Building. The upper floors facing Broadway showcase a mosaic of rainscreen siding, reducing massing while providing shading and play of light through deep windows.
Located in East Harlem, the design for this massive housing complex, home to 709 affordable units, prioritizes Passive House principles without compromising on design excellence. Inspired by a historic trail that once traversed the location, the project organizes itself into three distinct volumes, which frame a central meandering landscaped path. that culminates in a captivating central courtyard. This dynamic space cascades across various levels, fostering the creation of individual community gardens.
These two new sculptural buildings in Hamberg extend a traditional working class residential area, reinterpreting the original architectural language or the area while simultaneously reconciling them with the high energy efficiency requirements of a passive house building. The resulting complex adds seventy-five publicly funded housing units that vary in size and layout (for single persons, couples and families), thereby extending the principals of the surrounding urban fabric — IBA 2013, an intercultural housing project designed to house over 1,700 people from 30 different nations.
The SIX, a LEED Gold-certified affordable housing project, redefines shelter for previously homeless veterans in McArthur Park. Breaking from traditional layouts, it prioritizes public areas over private space: four levels of housing units surround a courtyard with green-roofed balconies, visually connecting to the street below.
Ville Verdi transcends traditional housing, embracing passive house elements to form an eco-friendly haven. Comprising 5 villas with 34 residential units each, the design emphasizes barrier-free accessibility and communal spaces, fostering a sense of community.
Designed to operate with an impressive 85 percent less energy than typical New York City apartment buildings, this groundbreaking six-story residential building in Bushwick was the country’s first mid-sized apartment complex adhering to Passive House design standards. Featuring 24 units of affordable housing, each rental residence incorporates individual ventilation systems, small radiators for heating and airtight window air conditioning units, meeting the stringent Passive House criteria. The triple-paned windows and a sculpted exterior facade utilizing STO EIFS insulation optimize energy performance by minimizing heat loss in winter and reducing solar heat gain in summer.
Arch. T. Jordan Ong graduated B.S. Architecture from the College of Architecture and Fine Arts (Now College of Architecture) at the University of Santo Tomas. He has worked in various reputable architectural firms and has risen among the top key employees on all occasions. He has handled hundreds of residential and high-rise projects during his stay in one of his previous firm, where he worked as department head for construction. But having the drive and passion to pursue his goal, he humbly started his own practice in the summer of 2007 and since has expanded his portfolio, designing various projects ranging from high-end residential projects, townhouses, mid-rise buildings, high rise buildings, restaurants and commercial buildings. He embraced the modern minimalist style, and it shows in all of his works, but has added his own style in the process.
This metaverse masterplan is designed for a futuristic, dystopian world in which global warming has flooded the Earth, rendering it uninhabitable. The Metacity will consist of five cities, the first of which will take the form of a Möbius strip, hovering above the ocean. The city will function as a self-contained eco-system, featuring a gravity-coated surface that generates perpendicular gravity.
One of the unique draws of the metaverse is its ability to bridge the voids of geography. You can share the same virtual space as someone thousands of miles away — no arduous traveling required. It makes sense then to leverage this new realm as a business and networking tool.
Defined by its amethyst hues and the glass globe at its heart, the Unusualverse is conceived as a plain of artistic community. A reaction to the The term ‘metaverse’ first appeared in the 1992 dystopian novel, but in more recent years, fiction has truly become (virtual) reality. of the physical world, this new virtual reality universe offers a space for creativity to flourish, at a distance from the pressures of society and day-to-day life.
A car showroom with a difference, this innovative concept space deftly combines reality and virtual reality. In contrast to the other projects in this round-up, the exhibition hall was designed for a real-world location: Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Created to promote eco-friendly vehicles, the metaverse fuses with the material fabric of the space, conjuring up new horizons of exploration.
HWKN Architecture was chosen to design a virtual cultural hub by metaverse company Pax.World. Dubbed a metaserai, the concept was inspired by 
A virtual gallery showcasing the work of architecture firm ATRIUM, this dynamic, cave-like space envelops users with its curvilinear lines. Forming a rippling, multi-layered terrain, pale pink blurs into hot pink hues across the floor and walls, before cooling to white across the ceiling, where architectural elements hang in the air.
New York is a city known for housing scarcity, and a place that’s defined by reinvention. For Timber House, MESH Architectures was inspired by natural finishes and “botanical architecture.” The idea was not only to foster well-being, but create a new model for timber construction in the city. The project is the first mass-timber condominium in New York, and the structure was built with glue-laminated timber columns, beams, and floor plates. The six-story, multifamily project is comprised of fourteen homes.
MVRDV has earned a reputation for reinvention and creating new building forms. That same approach extends to housing, where the team designed Valley with a more “green and human” touch. Built for developer Edge, the project is located in Amsterdam Zuidas. Rising to three distinct towers, the façades shift across the complex. The outer edges are mirrored glass, while the inner façades are clad with stone and swaths of greenery.
Few locations are more prominent for multifamily housing in St. Louis than Forest Park. Designed by Studio Gang, One Hundred is a residential tower overlooking the park and the studio’s first project in the city. The tower includes a mix of housing, retail and amenities on four-story stacked tiers. The apartments were designed for views of Forest Park and east to the Gateway Arch.
The Cirqua project by BKK gained widespread recognition for creating beautiful, inventive multifamily architecture. The project includes 38 unique unit types out of the 42 total apartments made with spacious balconies and an integrated approach to landscaping. Combining two properties into a single block, the project was formed with careful attention paid to scale and the surrounding context. Cirqua not only showcases a smart, nuanced approach to multifamily housing, but also how to design for accessibility and passive performance.
Caterpillar approaches density through a novel construction and design in Core City, Detroit. It utilizes a Quonset Hut structure that holds eight units, all entirely prefabricated. The result is an 8,000 square foot (745 square meter) residential project that prioritizes indoor and outdoor space. Prince Concepts created the project with tall ceilings that rise to 23 feet (7 meters); the units were designed to capture morning light in the bedrooms and evening sunsets in the living room.
CPDA Architects designed this garden house project as a multifamily development in Mexico City. Located in the Escandón neighborhood, the project includes fourteen residential units. At its heart, a central courtyard is the connective element that defines the housing project, opening up access to natural light and cross ventilation. Ten townhouse units are set up the four ground-floor units below, all of which share a similar material relationship.
Few cities in the world are grappling with homelessness and a severe lack of housing affordability like Los Angeles. Brooks+Scarpa has built a practice addressing issues in the city and across the nation. For this multifamily residential, The SIX was designed as a 52-unit affordable housing project that “provides a home, support services and rehabilitation for previously homeless and/or disabled veterans.”
Over the last two decades, development in China has been defined by a dizzying pace and new architecture produce in-mass. For Jinshan 9, this force behind new buildings was directed into a multifamily living community. Located in China’s Shekou mixed-use district, the project looks out west to wild, forested mountains and east to Shenzhen Bay Bridge. With a range of both low-rise and high-rise structures, the development was made for diverse lifestyles and populations.
