At SkyVille@Dawson, a next-generation public housing project, WOHA architects built 8 sky bridges linking 3 47-storey towers. Every tower is composed of 4 vertically stacked Sky Villages, and each Sky Village comprises 80 homes that share a naturally ventilated community terrace and skygarden. Even though there are 960 homes, there is not a single internalised corridor in the development. Public space for various types and sizes of community groups are distributed through the towers and the ground plane, and are fully open to the public. The entire roof is a public park with a 300m walking track. Neighbours cross paths and interact with one another on a daily basis.

In fact, in a study that compared SkyVille to an adjacent development, residents in SkyVille said that they considered, on average, 10.2 neighbours as friends in comparison to residents from the adjacent development, who considered 7.5 neighbours as friends.

Going back to SkyVille’s original design thrusts, which are community, variety and sustainability, the study further showed that rather than seeing environmental and social goals being at odds, it is possible to see environmental performance and social engagement as interdependent outcomes that can be integrated through form-based solutions.

Nestling homes within a three dimensional matrix of community space created strong bonds between people; while sheltered inner voids created an onsite microclimate that reduced thermal load and enhanced cross ventilation.