Enjoying the city – from the sky

Designed by Safdie Architects

From the architects:

The integrated development of The Singapore Edition hotel and Boulevard 88 residential towers provides a tranquil escape amid Singapore’s bustling Orchard Road shopping district.

The project combines a pair of 28-storey residential towers with the newly opened 204-room hotel, the latest to launch under Edition Hotels.

Boulevard 88 and The Singapore Edition join an international portfolio of hospitality projects by Safdie Architects, noted for creating generous connections to nature within dense urban environments.

It also marks the firm’s latest contribution to Singapore’s innovative architecture, following such iconic projects as Marina Bay Sands and Jewel Changi Airport.

“This project is different than many other hotels and residential mixed-use projects in that Boulevard 88 and The Singapore Edition share a very small site, and therefore must be interwoven, but with their own identities,” said Moshe Safdie, founding partner of Safdie Architects. 

“We kept the individual experience of both residents and guests in mind, creating layers of space with individual, communal, and entertainment functions from the lowest levels of the hotel to the top of the residential skybridge park – the combination creates a unique offering of true privacy, but with connection to the city beyond."

A lush sunken garden forms an interior courtyard that both joins and separates the hotel and residences. 

The hotel embraces the garden on three sides, which provides the lobby, restaurant, and first-floor bars with views of the courtyard and landscaped terraces. 

Meeting rooms, ballrooms, and a speakeasy lounge on the lower level have direct access to the courtyard, so guests can mingle between inside and outdoors.

Boulevard 88 and The Singapore Edition builds on Safdie Architects’ development of a new urban typology characterised by its interconnectedness. 

Multiple skyparks that give the project its distinctive form span and physically unite the building’s disparately programmed elements of the residences and hotel. 

The uniqueness of the project’s assembly marks the latest evolution of Safdie Architects’ skypark concept that was first introduced as a reimagined public space at Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort (Singapore); as an enclosed conservatory at Raffles City Chongqing (China); and as a design strategy for knitting together structures at multiple levels at Sky Habitat (Singapore).

A skybridge on the ninth storey of the hotel slips through the void between the towers. 

A ribbon of blue and green, it features a 43m swimming pool, sun deck, and outdoor bar and lounge amidst lush greenery and mature trees. 

Swimmers can enjoy surreal views of the garden courtyard below through an underwater acrylic oculus in the pool floor.

“At the heart of the project, it’s about creating a sense of incredible openness where you wouldn’t expect it,” said Jaron Lubin, Safdie Architects senior partner. 

“We wanted to create a respite amidst the action of one of Singapore’s busiest shopping streets.”

An upper bridge measuring 76m x 35m spans the rooftops of the residential towers on the twenty-eighth storey. 

Residents have exclusive access to a 50m infinity pool overlooking the city, enveloped on all sides with lush greenery, as well as exterior and interior lounge spaces. 

Marking the first inhabited skypark by Safdie Architects, the four penthouse apartments embedded within the bridge truss structure are among the most coveted on Orchard Road for their panoramic views and private plunge pools in each unit.

To facilitate guests’ comfort and privacy, Safdie Architects developed a system of exterior screens that responds to Singapore’s tropical climate. 

Guests can customise daylight levels by manipulating the screen system’s distinctively coloured, exterior mounted panels using a control pad next to the bed. 

The building’s ever-changing façade reflects each guest’s preferences.

In collaboration with Ian Schrager, the founding visionary behind Edition Hotels, Safdie Architects and Edition’s design team created a harmonious dialogue between the hotel’s architectural character and its interior design. 

A neutral colour palette and rich natural materials complement the architecture’s crisp forms and provide a backdrop for lush greenery and abundant daylight.

Charu Kokate, Safdie Architects senior partner says: “By building a true collaboration with both The Singapore Edition team led by Ian Schrager, and our partners at City Developments Limited on Boulevard 88, we were able to realise an ambitious design that fosters a sense of intimacy for guests and residents alike.

"The result is a multifaceted, intricately constructed building that adds to the vibrancy of one of Singapore’s most iconic neighbourhoods.”

Residents of Boulevard 88 have a separate private entrance on the opposite side of the site from the hotel. 

Perched on tall columns, even the towers’ lowest levels soar above the hotel. 

This approach provides both residents and hotel guests with privacy and a unique experience of the compact site. 

Extending Moshe Safdie’s beautifully simple metaphor, 'For everyone a garden', each residence features gracious tree-planted balconies, which are staggered across the façade to offer expansiveness and connections with the sky. 

Daylight and breezes suffuse unit interiors through sliding doors and operable windows.

On the roof, a spacious skypark packed with amenities links the 28-storey residential towers. 

Residents can take in spectacular views of the city from interior and exterior lounge spaces or the infinity pool, which extends the full length of the skypark and overlooks the hotel courtyard below. 

Designed by: Safdie Architects

Story by: Trendsideas

Photography by: Photography by Finbarr Fallon and Timothy Hursley