Hong Kong-based Ronald Lu & Partners has completed a residential development in Kowloon described as a “real forest building.” Named Garden Crescent, the scheme was designed with the philosophy of “nature on every doorstep.”

Externally, the building features slanted structural supports to create solid and void spaces that are designed to create multiple avenues for natural ventilation and passive cooling. On the podium level, the scheme’s biophilic elements include a landscape of trees, shrubs, and plants aimed at improving air quality, reducing the urban heat island effect, and enhancing the local microclimate.

As the tower rises, voids in the form create six multi-layered green courtyards. Designed to be fully accessible to birds and insects in an effort to repopulate the area’s biodiversity, the courtyards are also intended to give residents immediate access to nature, “giving them the visual delight of watching trees and plants bloom, grow, and change through the seasons,” according to the team.

Throughout the tower, circulation routes such as the outdoor podium staircase are heavily landscaped, encouraging residents and visitors to “walk through lush greenery as they go about their daily lives; making their own pathways and routes that surprise and delight as the greenery changes through the seasons.” In each apartment, meanwhile, planters along the balconies and kitchen windows create additional green pocket spaces while promoting healthy food habits through the capacity to grow edible plants and herbs.

“More and more, urban building designers and operators are prioritizing interior and exterior greenery — this benefits residents, the community, and the natural world,” said Ronald Lu & Partners Asia’s Vice Chairman Bryant Lu about the scheme. “Garden Crescent is an extraordinary residential building that provides a physical and metaphorical connection to the natural world and delivers a prominent green landmark for Kowloon.”

The complex is one of several recently completed residential developments to feature in our editorial. Earlier in December, we reported on French 2D’s Boston co-housing complex as well as IOAN’s Joshua Tree residence, which sets natural materials against a desert backdrop. In November, we covered SGVA’s Brooklyn apartment complex while, in October, we reported on a coastal Canadian home by StudioAC and a Passive House retrofit of a 1970s garage in Quebec by Atelier L’Abri.