The prestigious World Building of the Year Award has been awarded to a cutting edge project in Singapore at the 2015 World Architecture Festival. The Interlaced impressed judges with its unique approach to contemporary living in a challenging tropical environment. The “vertical village” is easily one of the most unusual and innovative architectural projects to take place in recent years.

The property is made up of 31 six storey apartment blocks, stacked in a hexagonal arrangement. The whole complex covers 170,000 square metres and contains 1,000 apartments. There are also various communal spaces for residents to use, including eight courtyards, tennis courts, reading rooms and even a one kilometre long running track around the perimeter of the complex.

The Interlaced prioritises community whilst still allowing a number of people to live in a relatively small area, providing a new alternative to high rise skyscrapers. Typically tall properties leave residents living in a densely packed building with very few spaces available for communal living. The Interlaced is different as clever use of space gives residents more scope for interaction and community, such as the roof terraces on top of the apartment blocks. The whole complex has an airy and roomy feeling, something that is vital for comfortable living in a country with a tropical climate.

Our architects in London are inspired by projects such as this which are designed around the concept of giving residents the best possible quality of life, while also making innovative use of light and space. We would be interested to see how similar ideas could be applied to cities with more spatial restraints such as London and New York as an alternative to towers and skyscrapers. We will continue to innovate in our own work to keep providing people with properties which enhance the way they live and work.