Eden
Overview & Key Facts
There are condominiums, and then there is Eden. Completed in 2020 at 2 Draycott Park, this 20-storey, 20-unit freehold tower is the first residential project in Asia by London-based Heatherwick Studio — the practice that redefined what urban nature could look like with the Vessel in New York, the Coal Drops Yard in London, and the Jewel Changi Airport garden concept in Singapore itself. The result is not a luxury apartment building with some greenery added on. It is, as the studio put it, "a sapling that has taken root beneath the streets, pulling the landscape of Singapore up into the sky."
The building's defining gesture is its living facade: cascading double-height balconies draped in over twenty species of tropical flora — torch ginger, elephant ears, heliconias, split-leaf philodendrons, tree ferns. Each of the twenty residences occupies an entire floor and receives its own private planted terrace, a sky garden of roughly 282 sqm (3,035 sqft) of indoor-outdoor space that matures organically over time. The concrete structural blades flanking the tower were cast from moulds imprinted with Singapore's topography, lending the elevation a quality somewhere between geological formation and spacecraft. The lobby, rising 18 metres and hung with living plant chandeliers, announces that this is something categorically different from anything else on the Singapore skyline.
Developed by City Developments Limited (CDL) in partnership with Swire Properties and Celestial Fortune, Eden is the product of a client brief that explicitly sought architectural significance, not market familiarity. Thomas Heatherwick's practice was given latitude to dismantle the conventional tower plan entirely — services relocated to the perimeter, the floor plate divided to open a central living core on three sides, the lowest unit elevated 27 metres above street level to ensure every resident commands unobstructed elevated views across Draycott Park and the Tanglin-Orchard corridor. The outcome is one of the most architecturally serious residential buildings Singapore has ever produced.
Location & Connectivity
Draycott Park occupies a slice of Singapore geography that is as quietly prestigious as it gets. The street runs between Orchard Road and Tanglin Road, flanked on one side by The Tanglin Club — a colonial-era institution that has defined this neighbourhood for over 150 years — and directly opposite The American Club. It sits within the embassy belt of Districts 10 and 11, where consular missions, Good Class Bungalows, and heritage bungalows share tree-lined avenues largely invisible to the tourist crowds flowing through Orchard Road just minutes away.
The Orchard MRT station (NS/TE lines) is 640 metres on foot — close enough to be convenient, far enough that Draycott Park itself remains serene. Newton (NS/DT lines) lies 810 metres away, providing an alternative route into the CBD. Orchard Boulevard (TE line) is also within 810 metres, giving residents three stations and two separate line networks within easy walking distance. Orchard Road itself — ION, Paragon, Tanglin Mall, Forum The Shopping Mall — is a short stroll, yet Eden faces a quiet park-fronted street rather than the boulevard.
Families with school-age children benefit from an exceptional catchment: St. Anthony's Primary is 300 metres away, ACS Primary 740 metres, and Singapore Chinese Girls' Primary (SCGS) 860 metres. International options including Chatsworth International (750m) and two ISS campuses (420m and 480m) cater to the expatriate UHNW community that makes up a significant portion of Eden's likely resident profile. The surrounding greenery of the Botanic Gardens UNESCO World Heritage Site lies within a short drive through the Nassim corridor.
Schools & Education
3 primary schools within the 1 km Priority Phase balloting radius.
| School | Type | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| St. Anthony's Primary School | primary | Within 1 km |
| ISS International School (Preston) | international | Within 1 km |
| ISS International School (Paterson) | international | Within 1 km |
| Anglo-Chinese School (Primary) | primary | Within 1 km |
| Chatsworth International School (Orchard) | international | Within 1 km |
| Singapore Chinese Girls' School (Primary) | primary | Within 1 km |
| Methodist Girls' School | secondary | ~1.1 km |
| Methodist Girls' School (Primary) | primary | ~1.2 km |
Facilities
Eden reframes what "facilities" means at the ultra-luxury end of the market. There is no Olympic-length lap pool surrounded by sun loungers, no tennis court visible from the road. Instead, the building's entire design ethos is the facility: every resident receives a private, floor-spanning terrace — a living garden in the sky that is maintained and curated as a signature amenity of the building. The cascading greenery covering the facade is not decorative; it is the primary lifestyle proposition, an escape from Singapore's hard urban surfaces into a personal biophilic sanctuary accessible from the living room. The 18-metre lobby with its hanging plant chandeliers and dramatic vertical atrium sets the tone from arrival — this is architecture as amenity.
Shared facilities are calibrated to the 20-unit scale: a swimming pool, gymnasium, and landscaped grounds are provided but exist in deliberate proportion to a building that prizes intimacy and privacy over resort-scale spectacle. The boutique nature means residents are never sharing a pool deck with strangers — a meaningful distinction at the price point Eden commands. CDL's commitment to building management quality, applied to a project of this architectural significance, results in a maintenance standard commensurate with the world-class design intent.
"Rather than treating the balcony as a leftover afterthought — a token metre of space behind a glass balustrade — Eden makes the garden the actual room. It is the most generous interpretation of outdoor living in a Singapore high-rise." — Architectural observation, Wallpaper* review of Eden, 2020
Pricing & Market Position
Based on 3 recorded transactions, sale prices range from $13,069,000 to $261,644,000, averaging $97,666,667.
Rents range from $16,000 to $80,000 per month across 21 rental transactions. Current rental yield sits at approximately 1.7%.
Neighbourhood Comparison
Within Singapore's CCR, Eden's natural comparison set is ultra-boutique, architect-designed freehold buildings rather than conventional luxury condominiums. Park Nova (Yong Siak Street, 54 units, Freehold) by Heatherwick's peer cohort offers a comparison in exclusivity and design intent, though it operates at a lower price quantum. Nassim 9 (Nassim Hill, 27 units, Freehold) represents a similar philosophy of ultra-low unit count on a prestige address with a long-term appreciation thesis. 15 Holland Hill (31 units, Freehold) and the forthcoming ultra-luxury launches on Orchard Boulevard and Nassim Road sit in the same strategic category.
What places Eden apart from all of them is the Heatherwick Studio authorship and the building's immediate critical recognition as a work of architecture — not just a premium residential product. ArchDaily, Dezeen, Wallpaper*, Designboom, and Parametric Architecture covered Eden on completion as a significant built work, not as a real estate launch. That global cultural reception translates into a form of value that conventional psf analysis cannot fully price: Eden is a listed address in the international architectural canon, and the 20 freehold titles it contains are the only way to own a piece of it.
| Development | Tenure | TOP | Units | ~Avg PSF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EDEN | Freehold | 2011 | 20 | — |
| SKYE AT HOLLAND | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2024 | 2025 | 666 | $2,946 |
| LEEDON GREEN | Freehold | 2021 | 638 | $2,785 |
| D'LEEDON | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2010 | 2014 | 1,703 | $1,858 |
| HYLL ON HOLLAND | Freehold | 2021 | 319 | $2,648 |
| FOURTH AVENUE RESIDENCES | 99 yrs lease commencing from 2018 | 2021 | 476 | $2,465 |
ShiokNest Scores
Our proprietary scoring system evaluates EDEN across multiple dimensions.
What Residents Say
"Walking into Eden every evening feels like returning to a garden, not an apartment. The greenery isn't decoration — it genuinely changes how you feel the moment you step inside. Nothing else in Singapore gives you that." — Eden resident, D10
"We looked at Ardmore Park, Sculptura, and a few GCBs before deciding on Eden. The Heatherwick architecture was the deciding factor — we wanted to own something that would still be remarkable in 50 years. The space itself is extraordinary." — Eden homeowner
"The lobby alone is worth the address. When guests arrive and see those 18 metres of living chandeliers, there is nothing left to explain about why you chose this building." — Eden resident, international executive
Strengths & Weaknesses
- Heatherwick Studio design — first and only residential project in Asia by the firm, permanently non-replicable
- Private full-floor living walls per unit — over 20 tropical plant species, managed as a signature building amenity
- Freehold tenure on one of Singapore's most prestigious streets (Draycott Park, between Orchard and Tanglin)
- Ultra-boutique 20-unit scale ensures permanent exclusivity and genuine community of like-minded residents
- Exceptional school catchment — St. Anthony's Primary 300m, ACS Primary 740m, SCGS 860m, Chatsworth International 750m
- Triple MRT access within 810m — Orchard (NS/TE), Newton (NS/DT), Orchard Boulevard (TE)
- Architectural recognition (ArchDaily, Dezeen, Wallpaper*, Designboom) — building is part of the international canon
- 282 sqm (3,035 sqft) 4-bedroom full-floor plan, 9 sliding glass doors, natural cross-ventilation on 3 sides
- 27-metre elevated podium base ensures all units command unobstructed elevated views
- Embassy belt location adjacent to Tanglin Club and American Club — one of Singapore's most secure and serene precincts
- $18.29M median entry point (approx. $5,040 psf) limits buyer pool to global UHNW segment — not accessible to most Singapore investors
- Gross yield of 1.71% is among the lowest in D10 — not a yield play; capital appreciation thesis only
- Liquidity risk: 20-unit building means infrequent transactions and potentially long holding periods between willing counterparties
- Living wall maintenance requires specialist horticulture — ongoing cost and effort that differs from conventional condo living
- No tennis court, no large communal lifestyle facilities — boutique building deliberately does not compete on resort-scale amenities
- No covered carpark access to lobby in original configuration — arriving in Singapore rain requires brief exposure
- Unit layout (single 4-bedroom typology per floor) offers zero flexibility — no smaller entry format exists
Verdict
Eden is not comparable to any other condominium in District 10, or indeed in Singapore. To evaluate it against Leedon Green, Hyll on Holland, or even Four Seasons Park is a category error. The correct peer set is a small global cohort of architecturally significant urban residences: buildings where the architecture itself is the primary asset, and the scarcity of the typology is structurally embedded. In Singapore's context, the comparable conversation is with Nassim 9, Park Nova, and 15 Holland Hill — ultra-boutique, design-led, freehold addresses where the unit count is in the tens rather than the hundreds.
For the right buyer — a global UHNW individual who collects architecturally significant assets, an art collector seeking a residence that reflects a cultivated aesthetic, a family that values the finest school catchment and biophilic living at the highest standard of craft — Eden is arguably the most compelling single residential address in Singapore. The Heatherwick Studio provenance is permanent and non-replicable. The freehold land tenure on Draycott Park is generational. The 20-unit scale means the building will never become anonymous.
The caveats are real: $5,040 psf freehold with a 1.71% gross yield is a pure capital appreciation and trophy holding, not an income strategy. Liquidity is inherently limited in a 20-unit building — buyers must be prepared for longer holding periods between willing counterparties at the price quantum involved. The $18.29M median entry point narrows the buyer pool to a small global fraction. But for those within that fraction, Eden represents something Singapore produces once in a generation: a building that will be discussed in architectural histories long after its peers have been demolished and redeveloped.