Pictures: Architect Soo K. Chan’s Homes, Resorts and Towers

Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Soori Highline (spring 2016)

“Soori High Line is my debut project in the United States. It’s about a resort lifestyle and integrating that into a New York City context. There’s also a great emphasis of my work on the in-between space, what I call the transition space, which is the space between the indoor and outdoor. It will have 16 private pools.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Soori Highline (spring 2016)

“Soori is a combination of my wife’s name and my name. Soo is my name and my wife’s Javanese name is Sri, so I came up with Soori.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

515 Highline, 515 West 29th Street between 10th and 11th (December 2015)

“515 High Line is sculptural and much more formal because of its location…New York is such a big canvas. It’s a privilege to work in the city.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Grange Road House (Singapore, 2010)

“I like to call this the museum house because it was designed more for the art collector. There are also a lot of indoor/outdoor spaces. The whole approach was about trying to push materials to the limit. It’s constructed from limestone and metal. It’s very minimal on the outside and quite warm on the inside.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Ridout Roadhouse (Singapore, 2006)

“I think of the feeling of a space when I design—it’s always based on the human experience and how you move through a space. Every building presents a different challenge; a different experience.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

One KL (Malaysia, 2004)

“One KL is 35 stories. It’s next to the Petronas Towers, which at one point were the highest buildings in the world. It’s about creating residences in the sky.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Alila Villas Soori (Bali, Indonesia, 2005)

“The process of working on resorts is about integrating culture, sustainability, local materials, craftsmen and more. There are a lot of considerations when you build a resort—you have to be extra careful so that you build naturally and use what’s available locally.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Alila Villas Soori (Bali, Indonesia, 2005)

“Alila Villas Soori is near rice fields, the beach and mountains. You’re not just working with zoning—you’re also working with people’s religious beliefs. You want to include the people around where you’re designing to be a part of your hotel, so you’ll be looking for integration from the climate, but also from cultural references.”

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Style by Design

SCDA Architects Design Director Soo K. Chan shares the backstories behind his greatest work, including private homes, luxe resorts and inimitable residential towers

Written by Alisha Prakash

Park Hyatt Maldives (Hadahaa, 2005)

“Both Alila Villas Soori and Park Hyatt Maldives are green resorts. It’s all about how you deal with the land, preserving corals, capturing rainwater runoffs, keeping existing foliage. In the Maldives, there are many fishermen and they are also an island that sells boats, so we built this inverted boat structure. I really appreciate that aspect about resort design because it tells a story of an idea.”