The Reef at Keppel Bay
Singapore
The Reef at King’s Dock is a high-end waterfront residential development, strategically located in the exclusive Keppel Bay precinct along Singapore’s southern shores. The development features an urban village concept alongside the more than 100-year-old shipping dry-dock. Ten buildings varying in height, size and facade treatments sit alongside the Dock, while a new concrete pontoon floats alongside the Dock wall. A small public waterfront park facing Keppel Bay and Sentosa island was also delivered as part of the project.
Around the globe, industrial waterfronts like Keppel Bay have been reimagined, transforming once-forgotten wastelands into vibrant urban districts. As climate change and biodiversity loss accelerate, Singapore—a small tropical island—must embrace new waterfront solutions to meet these challenges head-on.
The Residential Landscape
Pathways flanked by playful linear water features and planting, elegantly open the perspectives to King’s Dock between the urban blocks. Smaller water features are spread around the development, ensuring that most residential units face a common space enlivened by water. In the Valley, between central axis and dock, terraced greenery and level differences optimize the privacy for adjacent residential units. Setting back the stairs and water cascade away from the edge also ensures a better visual relationship between the central axis and the dock, cutting our an elegant viewing corridor. Looking back from the dock, one can fully appreciate the setback and layered planting.
The tallest and largest residential block has two smaller mid-level Sky Gardens for shaded respite and an expansive rooftop garden on top. User comfort and privacy were key design drivers in the detailing of the spaces, with taller planters creating visual barriers, while also allowing for more vigorous vegetation. The ground floor courtyards have more textural planting accustomed to low lighting levels.
The Floating Deck
The Reef at King’s Dock is Singapore’s first residential property with a floating deck, providing unique recreational experiences for the residents. The 180-meter concrete deck, consisting of 3 interconnected pontoon elements, accommodates swimming pools, sun decks, and underwater marine viewing area, allows users to be physically closer to water whilst adding value environmentally.The hollow concrete pontoons move up and down with the tides along large mooring piles. The finished pontoon level is approximately 1 meter above the sea water level. Tidal gangways hinging between land and pontoon provide safe and comfortable access to the pon-toon.
The central pontoon unit contains a 50-meter-long lap pool, with the adjacent units containing the Rejuvenation and Leisure Pool. Within those last pools, water jets create a variety of hydrotherapy experiences. Pool indents and protruding platforms break down the linearity of the pontoon and create the illusion of more intimate smaller pools.
Small trees and shrubs, set within raised planters, further add intimacy for the lounger areas alongside the pools for the otherwise exposed pontoon.
Granite was applied consistently for the paving, the walls, the raised planters and the pool finishes, with special attention given to the various corner details and patterns, giving the pontoon a monolithic look, appropriate for the harbour context. The silvery colour of the granite pool resulted in a beautiful and inviting blue hue for the pool water, lighter than the Dock water, but softer than typical turquoise pools.
The Green Dock Wall
With the pontoon serving as the center of recreational activities, the dock wall has become an unexpected prominent façade for the new luxurious development.
Inspired by the existing spontaneous vegetation growing from the old dock wall, we have transformed the wall into an aesthetically pleasing and biodiverse landscape feature. Following extensive research, site visits and a mock-up, native plants adaptable to the marine environment, were included in planters which are resting on a lower tier of the wall or hanging from the top.
At the highest tides, the sea immerses the lowest planters. The upper planters remain in principle dry, though they will get exposed to salt splashes and air. This level difference results in the intermixing of two different plant habitats, with contrasting scales and textures. To further the contrast, the upper planter includes some wild flower plants like Ageratum conyzoides, Bidens alba, Tridax procumbens, etc. The concrete planters were given a rustic look to enhancing the re-wilding character.
The low maintenance character of the Dock Wall is one of the many design benefits. Over time the palette will evolve, with new species likely to propagate and establish themselves. Adjacent to the floating deck, the existing King’s Dock seawall has now been transformed into a beautiful, rustic, and naturalistic coastal green seawall—a living visual masterpiece. A multitude of ornamental plants, wildflowers, and spontaneous vegetation now partially cover the seawall.
The Marine Viewing Hammock / The Corals Viewing Pit
At the southern tip of the pontoon, a rectangular section has been cut out of the concrete deck, allowing seawater to flow freely in and out with the tides. This unique feature, known as the coral viewing pit, offers residents a chance to relax on four large hammocks while observing marine life below.
While the pontoon maintains its industrial, marine-inspired aesthetic above water, an entirely new world unfolds beneath the surface. Directly beneath each hammock, sculpted concrete bommies provide a foundation for transplanted corals. These bommies are formed from layered, thin concrete plates arranged in a cone shape, with each lower plate extending slightly beyond the one above. This tiered design encourages different coral species to thrive at various levels, creating a rich and diverse underwater ecosystem for residents to admire.
Over time, the bommies have become a thriving habitat, attracting a variety of marine life. As evening falls, underwater lighting enhances the spectacle, revealing the reef’s vibrant activity in a whole new way.
What makes The Reef at Keppel unique is the added engaging experience of the hammock netting above the corals, where people can see the actual corals below them. A secure netting carries the weight of up to 300 kg per panel. The netting design not only has a marine reference, it also maximises the visibility of the corals below and provides a resort-like experience. Planters around the hammocks separate the hammocks from the circulation spaces. People can laze around on the net and look down, admiring the natural marine biodiversity just below.
