This luxury condo development in Singapore showcases an innovative approach to compact apartment living
SC Global founder Simon Cheong discusses how Cuscaden Reserve, the luxury developer’s latest offering in the Petit Collectibles series, offers a new take on living small – but not confined – in the heart of the city.
Luxury residential developer SC Global Developments has set the benchmark for high-end living with many firsts. In 2005, BLVD became the first residential development in Singapore offering onsite concierge service for residents while in 2011, The Marq on Paterson Hill set a new standard in luxury living as the first and one of the only residential developments globally to have a swimming pool cantilevering from every unit of a residential building. The condominium was also the first in the world to have an apartment entirely decorated by Hermes.
The developer’s ability to think beyond convention, as well as daring to execute these ideas have raised the bar of high-end apartment living in Singapore since it was founded in 1996. It stems from a deep awareness of the elevated living expectations and desires of the wealthy and well-travelled target group, as well as a commitment to working with esteemed architects to provide original, meticulously designed and well-thought out living solutions.
Designed by SCDA Architects, Cuscaden Reserve is SC Global Development’s latest release, which addresses yet another spatial challenge – that of the compact city apartment. The condominium is co-developed together with New World Developments and Far East Consortium. Located along Cuscaden Road, it has 192 apartments. Most are one-, two- and three-bedroom units ranging from 700 sq ft to 1,163 sq ft.
There is also a bespoke collection of four-bedroom, 2,099-sq ft units located from the 21st floor with panoramic city views towards Orchard Boulevard for families who enjoy more generous entertainment spaces in their homes. The prime unit is a 3,755-sq ft Duplex Penthouse on the 27th and 28th floors.
The luxury of space with generously proportioned common areas that exude an ambience of a resort-style retreat is one of the defining principles of SC Global properties that differentiates their developments in the market.
“Cuscaden Reserve’s peerless location and apartment size is well placed in the market to take advantage of those seeking quality alongside the most efficiently designed spaces for investment,” said Simon Cheong, founder and chairman of SC Global Developments.
This is the third development released under SC Global’s Petit Collectibles series that addresses the demands of the market for smaller-sized apartments. While apartments with flexible internal layouts are not uncommon in Singapore, the extent of flexibility in the Petit Collectibles is unparalleled, Cheong highlighted.
Completed in 2012, the multi-award-winning Martin No 38 designed by Kerry Hill Architects was the first property in the series and remains the inspiration for the latter offerings. Formerly a warehouse, it has one- to three-bedroom units, with the smallest starting at 969 sq ft. Sliding panels between the living and sleeping areas in the smaller units allow for flexible use.
The second property in the Petit Collectibles series is Petit Jervois, completed in 2022 and designed by local firm RT+Q Architects. The low-rise development digs deeper into the discourse on compact apartment living, with 55 one- to three-bedroom units ranging from 581 sq ft to 1,044 sq ft.
In some units, wet services are located in a central core, enabling residents to move freely on the perimeter, hence augmenting the sense of space as well as increasing the surface area for window views. Like in Martin No 38, large sliding panels instead of conventional doors in some areas of certain units enable residents to customise their homes according to desired work-live-entertainment needs.
The buyers and residents of the Petit Collectible homes are a mix of young business professionals, empty nesters and foreigners seeking a stylish, centrally located "pied-a-terre" as their Singapore home, said Cheong. “With changing lifestyles and work habits, we have noticed that many residents are increasingly using their homes for both work and play. The flexible layout allows them fluidity in how they design their spaces to work from home.”
Like the other homes in the series, smaller units in Cuscaden Reserve also offer interior sliding walls and modular plans for personalisation. In the two-bedroom apartments, residents have the option of using the second bedroom as an extended entertainment, work or creative space that opens into the living area when the sliding walls are pushed open.
Understanding the need of private outdoor space, all units come with balconies. These outdoor spaces are generous enough to become outdoor dining areas so that the entire internal common space can be given to a capacious living area.
The location of each property was carefully considered. “Conceptually, Petit Jervois and Cuscaden Reserve are similar. But the design and architecture of each project are driven by their unique location and lifestyle of their residents,” Cheong highlighted.
“Petit Jervois enjoys a cosy, low-rise riverside village vibe [being located near the landscaped Alexander Canal], whereas Cuscaden Reserve is located in one of the most coveted locations in the heart of the city, right next door to global luxury icons like The St Regis Singapore and Four Seasons Singapore, offering residents a luxurious urban retreat and luxury pied-a-terre [within] Singapore’s premier lifestyle precinct.”
Cuscaden Reserve sits on raised terrain. Residents drive up a tree-lined driveway where artist Fernando Botero’s bulbous bronze Horse sculpture provides a dignified welcome. Along the way to the grand porte-cochere, more sculptures weave art and nature into the journey.
The building is poised on the highest part of the land to optimise views toward the Orchard area, Orchard Boulevard, the Singapore Botanic Gardens and beyond. “The [condominium’s] lush landscape preserves the original sloping nature of the site with a series of interlocking, cascading planes that follow the natural terrain,” shared the team at SCDA Architects that has worked with SC Global for over 20 years.
On the ground level, an Event Pavilion, sprawling Yoga Garden and salt-chlorinated swimming pool are integrated into the landscaped terraces.
The building itself is a clear, elegant volume of curtain glass, edged with golden bronze fins and raised on stoic aluminium-clad columns. The high level of detailing and finishes extends to the interiors, with custom-designed millwork built by skilled artisans to include built-in dehumidifiers and dedicated compartments for jewellery and watches.
“Petit Collectibles are designed to bring together all the finer details that one would expect of SC Global’s larger-scale luxury apartments without any compromise on the quality of the materials or attention to fine details,” Cheong commented.
He added: “Emphasis on craftsmanship, the finest quality materials and design, and luxury appliances that have become the mainstay of an SC Global home can be found in Cuscaden Reserve. Befitting the lifestyle and profile of the expected clientele, the majority of the apartments include private lift access – a feature that is rarely offered in apartments of this size.”
The less-is-more aesthetic and unified design of Cuscaden Reserve pays homage to the Bauhaus Movement, where architecture, landscape, art and interiors were equally considered and integrated seamlessly. German architect Walter Gropius, whose goal was to bridge the gap between craftsmanship and architecture, led the Movement.
Along with Gropius, fellow propagators such as German-American architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and Hungarian-American architect Marcel Breuer formed the vanguard of the Modernist Movement that has shaped today’s prevailing modern style of clean lines and structural clarity.
In a gentle nod to Breuer, whose design of the UNESCO building in New York was raised on pilotis, Cuscaden Reserve is lifted to allow the landscape to naturally flow through the building, accentuating the seamless connection to its lush surroundings. The unit layouts were inspired by Mies van der Rohe’s open-plan concept in the iconic Farnsworth House, where the paradigm of the home becomes rewritten into a fluid plan loosely demarcated by vertical planes.
The Bauhaus narrative extends to the Clubhouse Lounge on the first storey, where residents can rest on Bauhaus furniture including the Barcelona chair designed by Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier’s LC3 sofa, or play chess on German sculptor Josef Hartwig’s iconic Bauhaus chess set.
Designing purposeful spaces where everyday functionality was not divorced from comfort and aesthetics was mainstay of Bauhaus architects and designers. Likewise at Cuscaden Reserve, this milieu’s dissolution of work and living boundaries is given ample thought: against the backdrop of greenery outside a band of windows, the Lounge, which also contains three private work pods designed for meeting or work use, becomes an extension of residents’ homes.