In recent decades, cities have undergone profound transformations driven by new social dynamics, technological advances, and environmental change. In this context, architecture faces the challenge of rethinking how we live and how we build community.

Collective housing thus emerges as a key territory at a turning point: it shifts from being understood solely as a response to urban density to becoming a platform capable of proposing contemporary ways of living.

Masterplans, residential towers, housing blocks, and urban developments cease to be merely functional solutions and instead become devices that shape coexistence and neighborhood identity. Designing new ways of living simultaneously implies redefining urbanity.

Homes have become increasingly optimized and compact, while shared spaces for collective life have consolidated as natural extensions of domestic living. Private life intertwines with collective life: circulation areas transform into places for encounter, amenities function as expanded living rooms, and rooftops and terraces integrate nature as ecological infrastructure—becoming gardens.

Landscape is no longer an ornamental green edge but a structural component of living, incorporating elements that enrich everyday life: shade that regulates the microclimate of shared spaces, breezes flowing through courtyards and gardens, water that cools while adding light and natural acoustics, and biodiversity that activates gardens and terraces.

In collective housing projects, art is integrated as a resource that adds meaning and quality to spaces. Large-scale sculptures, murals, and site-specific works contribute to building identity, transforming common areas into recognizable places and strengthening a sense of belonging.

Building envelopes are conceived as a support for urban expression, while landscape is understood as a living intervention that accompanies everyday life. When architecture, art, and nature converge, collective housing moves beyond the functional and becomes a shared experience.

Designing at this scale requires an understanding of how everyday life unfolds across different levels. Collective housing operates simultaneously within the intimacy of the apartment, the social dynamics of the building, the shared life of the complex, and its direct relationship with the neighborhood.

Every design decision influences how spaces are used, how relationships are formed, and how the project integrates into its urban context. The challenge lies in delivering density with quality of life—using space efficiently without losing character, and fostering community while respecting privacy.

Rather than simply adding square meters, we seek to propose new ways of living.

Designing collective housing means thinking beyond the present: it is about designing the future. Between the first sketch and the delivery of a project, time passes in which lifestyles, expectations, and the needs of those who will inhabit these spaces continue to evolve.

Architecture must anticipate possible scenarios and ask how we will live, which formal languages will resonate with us, and which new dynamics of work, technology, and leisure will require different types of environments.

Design is an exercise in anticipation: it involves interpreting emerging signals and transforming them into spaces capable of adapting and evolving.

In an ever-changing urban context, where digital and physical experiences are redefining daily routines, housing seeks to offer spaces that sustain tangible and meaningful experiences. Its value is expressed in its ability to accommodate diverse communities, support everyday life, and enrich forms of coexistence—elevating the quality of the encounters it enables.

When a development allows people to live with dignity, encourages spontaneous interaction, and generates a sense of belonging, architecture fulfills its purpose.

Today, we speak of residential developments designed to incorporate natural light, ventilation, shade, water, and vegetation as essential elements of the project. These are spaces that allow for working, resting, or simply being—and that invite contemplation.

Common areas are no longer conceived as secondary amenities; instead, they become places that expand and enrich everyday life, carefully shaping the experience of those who inhabit them.

Sustainability is no longer understood merely as a certification, but embraced as an ethic of design—one in which energy, materials, and landscape are integrated into a coherent and responsible gesture.

Collective housing now functions as an active cell within the city. Each building, each block, and each masterplan represents a fragment of the urban future, with the capacity to activate a neighborhood and transform its dynamics.

For this reason, the essential question shifts from focusing solely on how life unfolds within these projects to the kind of life they generate in their immediate surroundings. If we plan vertically and inward, we must also plan forward—anticipating needs, imagining possible scenarios, and designing spaces capable of making what does not yet exist habitable.

Collective housing accommodates people, but it also builds community, identity, and a projection of the future.

Arq. Ken Sei Fong