A New Reign of Waterfront Living: KCAP Introduces The Reef at King's Dock, Singapore

2018–2024 – King's Dock, Keppel Bay, Singapore: KCAP's 429-unit development for Mapletree and Keppel Land brings the concept of an Urban Village to Singapore's southern waterfront: a thoughtfully scaled high-density community on the site of the world's former second-largest dock, where architecture, landscape, and public space generate a strong sense of place and collective identity. Central to the design is a floating pontoon that functions simultaneously as recreation space and artificial reef, actively regenerating marine ecosystems beneath residential pools. Residential blocks step down toward the water, carving out human-scaled courtyards that break from conventional high-rise typologies. The design proves that high-density waterfront living, ecosystem restoration, and cultural continuity aren't trade-offs: they're mutually reinforcing elements.

Project Highlights

Context & Location: A Gateway Between Heritage and Innovation

Situated along the historic King's Dock in Keppel Bay, The Reef occupies a unique position at the threshold of Singapore's Greater Southern Waterfront transformation. The site mediates between the area's conserved maritime heritage and the city's vision for contemporary waterfront living, offering residents seamless connections to major amenities—HarbourFront MRT, VivoCity shopping centre, Sentosa, and the Southern Ridges park connector—while preserving critical views and spatial links to the dock and sea.

Urban Design: A Composed Landscape of Community

Rather than a monolithic development, The Reef's 429 residences are distributed across ten blocks of varying heights, arranged as a carefully composed trio of building types—Courtyard, Tower, and Villa blocks. Together, they frame a sequence of semi-public spaces rich with vegetation along the waterfront. The blocks gradually step down from 10 to 5 storeys, opening a vital view corridor from Mount Faber to the water while creating a lively, varied skyline. This arrangement around intimate garden pockets fosters an authentic sense of neighbourhood—what the project calls an Urban Village—where generous communal amenities and human-scale design create natural gathering points and visual connections throughout.

Architecture: Layered Façades and Passive Performance

The buildings are designed for porosity and permeability. Communal gardens, deep balconies, and sun-shading elements articulate layered façades that balance privacy with openness, maximizing natural ventilation and passive cooling. Building orientations harness daylight and prevailing winds, façades are designed to reduce solar gain, and green roofs enhance thermal performance while capturing rainwater for irrigation. The landscape weaves together sky gardens, green terraces, and semi-public courtyards, creating vertical and horizontal layers of greenery throughout the development.

Details: Singapore's First Floating Deck and Marine Integration

The project establishes multiple points of connection between residents and the water, including a 180-metre floating platform extending into King's Dock. The platform integrates swimming pools (including an Olympic-length lap pool), leisure areas, and a marine viewing zone where residents can directly observe the dock's biodiversity. Its submerged surfaces have been designed in collaboration with marine ecologists to encourage new marine habitats, embedding ecological thinking at the finest grain of the project. Serving as both social hub and ecological interface, the platform ties daily life to the site's maritime heritage and living environment.

The launch of The Reef coincides with Singapore’s Greater Southern Waterfront, one of Asia’s most ambitious urban transformations—reimagining over 1,000 hectares of prime coastal land. Positioned at its gateway, The Reef demonstrates how new urban developments can merge innovation, sustainability, and respect for maritime heritage. With a portfolio that includes the Jurong Lake District Master Plan and award-winning projects across Europe and Asia, KCAP brings extensive experience in sustainable architecture and human-scale urbanism to this landmark site.

“Our ambition has been to create a vibrant piece of urban architecture that fosters human interaction. This idea guided every decision—from the village-like arrangement of the buildings to the sequence of lush outdoor spaces. The floating deck acts as the project’s distinctive counterpart, offering an exceptional waterfront experience with uninterrupted views toward Mount Faber and the open sea.”
​– Anouk Kuitenbrouwer, Partner, KCAP

Project Team

Developer: Mapletree and Keppel Land

Architect & Urban Designer: KCAP

Local Architect: DCA Architects Pte Ltd

Landscape Architect: Grant Associates Singapore Pte Ltd

Main Contractor: Woh Hup (Private) Ltd

Structural engineer: T.Y. Lin International Pte Ltd

Additional Consultants

Project Photography

Year: 2018 - 2024

Status: Completed

Disciplines: Architecture and Urban Design

Client: Keppel Land Singapore / Mapletree Singapore

Program: Residential development of approximately 429 units on a 2.6 ha former shipyard site in downtown Singapore

About KCAP

KCAP is a leading international design practice specializing in architecture, urbanism, and landscape architecture. Founded in 1989 by Kees Christiaanse, the firm is today led by seven partners — Xavier Blaringhem, Jeroen Dirckx, Ruurd Gietema, Anouk Kuitenbrouwer, Irma van Oort, Ute Schneider, and Edward Schuurmans. From its offices in Rotterdam, Zurich, and Paris, KCAP’s team of over 100 international professionals works on a diverse portfolio of projects across Europe and Asia, shaping sustainable, human-centered environments at every scale.

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