Humanizing The High-Rise

Most discussions on skyscrapers focus on their iconography, symbolism, and how they function as ‘objects’ within the city—and that’s a mistake.

- Mark Denis

Too many times, the discourse on high-rises stops at the macro scale, which is a disservice to their stakeholders. Land-scarce Singapore cannot afford such a disservice, with 90 percent of its residents living in high-rise, high-density environments. Apart from shaping the urban fabric, these buildings must enrich the human experience of life in and around them.

In 2011, P&T Consultants won a competition to design the 702-unit Bartley Residences condominium. The site enjoyed two big advantages: its location at the fringes of Singapore’s city center and right next to an MRT Station. It also posed many challenges: a jagged, irregular shape; a busy, noisy road to its south; topography with a level difference of 18 meters from one end to the other; and, to top it all, a 147-year old Bodhi tree sitting precariously on the sloping terrain. The project was both design and construction challenge.

Managing scale, noise, views, and a 147-year old tree

Schemes that simply looked good on plan were cast aside when human factors were considered: minimizing east-west facing units, optimizing views, the avoidance of wall-like block buildings, and the creation of clearly defined residential clusters. In the end, the winning design was an exercise in establishing human scale. Rather than a single, over-scaled central space, the development would feature two interlinked common spaces, each creating friendlier residential clusters with their own distinct identity and character.