Kerry Hill remarked in a 2012 WAF interview, that ”Luxury today and I think in the future is not to do with materiality as much as the spatial and environmental qualities of living…. in other words, luxury doesn’t require gold taps and marble floors, luxury is about space and environmental comfort in today’s increasingly dense and chaotic world”. Seven Palms Sentosa Cove by Kerry Hill Architects is a bespoke low rise apartment development in the tropical Singapore climate. This luxury spoken about is expressed through the spatial and environmental qualities of the living spaces. The interior planning of the apartments incorporates wide sliding doors and operable partitions defined by Kerry Hill as ‘enfilade’, a term or spatial quality used in grand baroque palaces, providing a vista through an entire suite of rooms.

The façades are designed as a variable composition of panelled sliding perforated screens, layered with operable aluminium aerofoil louvres facing the primary views towards the ocean. This tempers the tropical heat gain and shields apartments during the driving monsoon seasons. Timber pivoting fins are used at the rear of apartments allowing residents to control their environment and manage their privacy. Cross ventilation is planned in all apartments, reducing the need for air conditioning.

As Singapore has a lot of dull and gloomy days, the trick in the tropics is not to exclude the sun, but to invite it in through a series of filters. Reflective dappled light from private swimming pools and solar light tubes are used to draw natural daylight into the apartments; and panelled and perforated sliding screens on the facade are used to filter the sun.