Singapore is building a 1,000-foot-long 'sidescraper' in the sky — and it may reveal a troubling trend

Sadfie Architects

As urban populations grow, cities have experienced a boom in mega-developments.

In Chongqing, Singapore, one of the city's latest and largest megaprojects is Raffles City, an under-construction development with eight skyscrapers — plus a ninth, horizontal tower that Curbed has dubbed a "sidescraper." 

Resembling a cruise ship, the roughly 1,000-foot-long building includes a hotel lobby, greenhouse, office space, restaurants, with the viewing deck lying across three other skyscrapers. The complex, called Marina Bay Sands, opened in 2011, but the larger Raffles City will be complete by 2020.

The complex is part of a larger trend. In the past several years, cities across the world have built fancy megaprojects, mainly aimed at the wealthy. But these types of luxury developments can take the place of affordable housing, especially in overcrowded cities. As the Urban Institute notes, developers see big returns from large, high-priced projects, giving them little incentive to build more equitable, lower-priced housing.

Take a look below.

Developers proposed Raffles City Chongqing in 2011, and construction began in 2015. So far, six towers are complete.

Source: Safdie Architects

See Also:

• Here's our first look at some of the new emoji coming to iPhones later this year
• The ugliest building in every US state, according to people who live there
• San Francisco's minimum wage is now $15 an hour — here's how that stacks up to other major cities