Elderly residents at SunCity Kashiwa are no longer at a loss for dinner conversation: an underutilized terrace outside their extensive ground-level common spaces now features a dramatic pond and mountain-inspired rock formation with multiple cascading waterfalls. Everyone wants a window seat. The striking water feature crowns a new four-season view garden designed to complement a current architectural renovation, undertaken 15 years after the facility’s opening. Strategic grading purposefully elevates the landscape and allows maximum benefits from both deciduous and evergreen tree plantings, with the dense trees screening the south residential wing and the single-family residential neighborhood beyond from view of the main public spaces. The mechanical bunker for the water feature is adjacent to the water elements, greatly reducing running costs and providing a foundation for the rocks and topography. Other new attractions include the addition of an entry canopy, repaving the arrival court, and updated project signage.
Sonoma Residence
Set amidst a coastal oak grove in Sonoma, this modern residence provides a peaceful retreat for a family and their growing children. Selected for its trees and pond, the site offers a rural escape where the owners can connect with nature. SWA’s design integrates oak grassland, chaparral, and riparian planting over a clean, minimal hardscape. Native meadow gras...
Chongqing Dongyuan 1891
This unique linear site is sandwiched between the Yangtze River and Nan Mountain. The design concept of the model area that unites a one-kilometer retail/commercial corridor with four high-rise residences is to create the experience of Shangri-La in an urban center. The spatial layout is characterized by a series of courtyards offering different experiences in...
Kingold Century Centre
This new mixed-use development features a complex program that includes a hotel, rental space for other companies, eateries, service apartments, and retail facilities. SWA’s design challenge was to create a common space that can be enjoyed by the disparate users on-site at any given time. A common plaza includes multiple restaurants on a terraced platform that...
Senayan Square Apartment Towers
An upscale complex of four apartment buildings in downtown Jakarta catering to visiting executives and their families required landscape design services to ground two recently constructed towers. Providing inspiration for enriching this flat, undifferentiated site were the country’s ubiquitous, terraced rice paddies, located just beyond the city’s border. The ...