A residential community planned across a steep, twisted hill – and isolated by a busy ring road – grows together through a series of linked common green spaces where water is celebrated.
The biggest design challenges – aside from the scale of the project – were the steep and warped slope of the site and the irregular shapes of the parcels. The designs placed approximately 2,400-2,800 residences on a hill which had been subdivided by roads and large drainage canals.
Studies compared more organic layouts that keept the existing grade, with more efficient layouts that altered the grade significantly. Placing housing units along the existing slope created more organic neighborhoods, and reduced the big cost of earthwork. However, the units couldn’t always be grouped as efficiently, creating more variations of building typologies and complicating foundation work. In these options, street slopes also varied more greatly. Placing the units in more monolithic layouts reduced the construction cost of the buildings, but increased the cost of the earthwork, as the slopes had to be significantly engineered. These schemes also felt overpowering for the site and were less visually engaging.
The different schemes also looked at entering the parcels from the top ring road – which meant a longer journey, but more privacy and security – or entering from the base ring road.
To meet open space requirements, designs looked at placing green spaces both within the parcels and outside of them, in the public-private venture parks envisioned over the existing drainage canals.
I was responsible for the (more) organic layout designs, as well as project organization, development calculations, and site section studies; using a combination of local planning codes and, where left uninformed, American planning codes. The residential typology designs came from the local design architect.
I focused on creating a harmonious environment, with a variety of scales of easily accessed spaces where people could gather, while guarding privacy. The entry road, as well as other main roads, for example, avoids pointing directly at residences. (I have held this concept of “no knife-like road” dear to my heart ever since studying Feng Shui in interior design in undergrad.)
ARCHITECT / PLANNER
The Jerde Partnership (Danny Ha, Project Principal)
IOANA URMA’s ROLE
Design consultant, Concept Phase: Developed several masterplan options in plan and section; also kept track of development calculations and project organization.
SITE
S.E. Asia
MATERIALS & DIMENSIONS
- · 12 parcels totalling 132 acres/ 0.53 sq km
- · +/-2,400-2,800 housing units (number of housing units varies by scheme, depending on how open space requirements are calculated)
- · 3 housing types: Semi-detached houses (in 3 design sizes); Townhouses (in 3 design sizes); & Condo towers (4 building designs)
IMAGE CREDITS
Masterplan designs, plan/section studies, and plan diagrams (featured on this page): Ioana Urma. 3D renderings & illustrated section: The Jerde Partnership project team headed by Danny Ha & Oleg Kiselev.






A lot of dirt would need to be moved to increase the max-height of the condo towers and make the grading work in a more efficient (less organic) plan layout.

Top study shows a more efficient plan option, which would, though, necessitate moving large quantities of dirt in order to maintain a consistent, and not too steep, grade.










In a less organic layout, a lot of dirt would need to be moved to make the slopes less extreme/follow code.
