From commercial mixed-use to hospitality and social housing, Singapore-based WOHA reinterprets the skyscraper as a prototype for hyper-dense, green urban living. Their first major exhibition in the United States, GARDEN CITY MEGA CITY, opened on March 23rd, 2016 at The Skyscraper Museum, and unveiled twelve of their most recent vertical ecosystems.
Featuring architectural models, videos and renderings, the show contextualizes the firm’s towering endeavors as a stunning contribution to skyscraper design and a radical response to the Asian megacity. WOHA’s projects—in China, Bangkok, and Singapore, among others—address issues such as rampant population growth, preservation of tropical biodiversity, and the desire for lively community spaces.
With airy pathways functioning like living social networks and porous façades of tropical vegetation, GARDEN CITY MEGA CITY makes the challenges of the emerging metropolis feel less like structural hurdles and more like stimuli for creative solutions. At a time of climbing urbanization rates and alarming climate change, WOHA’s future prospects for vertical villages serve as an enlightening template for architects, designers, and engineers, as well as developers and investors —all those concerned with the future of our cities.
