Rewriting the rules of high-rise living

Singapore’s relationship with height has always been pragmatic. But in 2025, the city’s most ambitious developments suggested a move beyond efficiency and skyline expression. The latest mega-scale projects, shaped by transport integration, layered landscapes, hospitality influences and high-performance construction, point towards a more considered form of vertical urbanism. This new generation of towers behaves less like standalone buildings and more like compact districts, each offering a different reading of how high-density living might evolve.

Few projects captured this shift more clearly than PARKTOWN Residence, winner of Best Mega Scale Condo Development at the PropertyGuru Asia Property Awards (Singapore). Developed jointly by CapitaLand Development, UOL Group and Singapore Land Group, it positions itself as a “town within a park” rather than a conventional high-rise community. Retail, a community club, a hawker hub and childcare facilities sit alongside its residential programme, while direct connection to the upcoming MRT station and bus interchange underlines its role as a transit node. Its “mountains and river valleys” landscape concept and extensive prefabrication approach contributed to further honours in Best Integrated Development, Best Mega Scale Condo Architectural Design, and Best Mega Scale Condo Landscape Design—a rare sweep that speaks to the project’s civic ambition.

W Residences Marina View – Singapore, winner of Best Ultra Luxury Condo Development, takes a lifestyle-led route to shaping vertical communities. Positioned above the new 360-key W Singapore – Marina View hotel, the development translates the brand’s expressive, hospitality-driven identity into a residential format. Sky terraces, water decks and social spaces reflect the W language of vibrancy, offering a vertical community shaped as much by atmosphere as by amenity. Its distinctive personality was recognised with further honours in Best Ultra Luxury Condo Interior Design, Best Sales Gallery Architectural Design and Best Lifestyle Condo Development, while W Singapore – Marina View received the Best Hotel Interior Design award. The result is one of Marina Bay’s clearest expressions of branded urban living.

If W leans into energy, UPPERHOUSE at Orchard Boulevard, winner of Best Luxury Condo Development, embodies a calmer register of high-rise luxury. Soft lines, tactile materials and a landscape strategy shaped around serenity distinguish the tower, while the Botanical Villa—its wellness-centred clubhouse—anchors its lifestyle proposition. Its prefabricated construction and performance-led engineering reflect a focus on long-term efficiency, which helped secure further recognition across Best Luxury Condo Interior Design and Best Condo Development (Singapore).

At a more accessible point on the high-density spectrum, the executive condominium segment continued to mature. Parc Greenwich, developed by Frasers Property Singapore and CSC Land Group (Singapore) and named Best Completed Executive Condo Development, showed how family-focused schemes can combine community facilities with nature-forward design at a more attainable price point. Otto Place, by Hoi Hup Realty Pte Ltd and Sunway Developments Pte Ltd, took the Best Executive Condo Development title, underscoring how EC projects are now expected to deliver many of the same connectivity and lifestyle qualities as private condominiums.

The commercial counterpart to these residential ideas appears in IOI Central Boulevard Towers, named both Best Office Development and Best Office Architectural Design. Its defining feature, Central Green, is an elevated park that moves biophilic design beyond visual gesture and into everyday workplace experience. Jogging paths, terraces and seating areas sit within a landscape that links the two towers, while the development connects seamlessly to Marina Bay’s pedestrian network and multiple MRT lines. Sustainable cooling systems and a high-performance façade round out an office complex that repositions the business district around wellness and greenery.

Completing this picture is One Marina Gardens by Kingsford Marina Development Pte Ltd, winner of Best Mega Scale Luxury Condo Development, a 937-unit addition that reinforces the residential arc of Marina Bay. Its significance lies less in stylistic flourish than in its scale and positioning, anchoring the district’s shift from a predominantly commercial centre into a mixed-use neighbourhood. As one of the area’s largest residential contributions, it helps balance a skyline long dominated by corporate towers.

Together, these developments reveal a shift in how Singapore uses height. Connectivity now shapes identity and liveability; landscape is treated as structural rather than decorative; and lifestyle programming—whether hospitality-led, wellness-oriented or civic—has become integral to the high-rise experience. Beneath it all lies a quiet layer of construction innovation, from PPVC and IDD to energy modelling and high-performance systems, enabling complexity at scale.

The result is a skyline evolving in several directions at once: integrated civic centres, branded residential districts, sculptural luxury towers, biophilic workplaces and large-scale waterfront anchors. Height remains a defining feature of Singapore’s urban character, but purpose, texture and everyday experience are increasingly what give it meaning.