SCI’s primary focus is on the design through master planning, urban design and landscape architecture, and associated fields including strategic policy and planning, environmental design and construction coordination.

When developing a master plan, SCI sees the plan as more than an arrangement of spaces that are to look attractive on the plan; the creation of places where people will live work and recreate. SCI acknowledges the interdependence of uses and users, environmental systems and communities, both within the planning area and externally, and the long term values of sustainability; social, economic and environmental.
SCI’s master plans must stand the test of time, what is laid out today must last for generations, and every plan must be tested, reviewed and refined with the input from other design team members, with the initial concepts forming a realistic and workable base for the development of the detailed planning and ultimately creation of the vision. With this in mind, master planning is an evolutionary process, from the development of the initial concepts through to the realisation, rather than a matter of developing options, selecting the one that looks good, and implementing the preferred option.
Based on this philosophy, SCI creates environments, whether urban or natural, that builds on and works with the assets of the site, utilising an integrated approach to address the often complex issues, resulting in solutions that are not only attractive, workable and efficient, but sustainable over the long term.
Urban design is the process and outcome of the creation of quality and functional places within the human environment, the places between the built form that unites the living environment, creating the essential social and environmental connections. The quality of these places, therefore, has significant impacts on how people live, work and recreate; their social, physical and mental wellbeing and the resultant evolving communities are dependent on good urban places.

In creating “Places for People,” SCI does not take a one-size-fits-all approach. The designs are based on broad principles that take into account the unique characteristics of a location, people’s enjoyment, experience and health, and encourage excellence and collaboration in the design process. To quote Jan Gehl, “’First life, then spaces, then buildings: the other way around never works.” The importance and value of good urban design cannot be overlooked.

Quality urban design is even more important in the dense and expanding Asian cities where the bulk of SCI’s projects are, cities with growing and changing populations and socio economic characteristics. SCI is about creating places for people and ultimately the creation of productive, sustainable, liveable ad healthy communities. SCI sees the success of its urban design projects as places that are walkable, safe, vibrant, connected, diverse and enduring where the community connects and ultimately becomes the custodian of the places created.

SCI perceives the landscape as the culmination of the process of the development of the human environment, the final link that integrates with and draws together the urban, resort or natural places, and the built environment. Our landscape concepts are both innovative and contextual, and are based on the principles developed in the master planning and urban design process, with the key principles of sustainability; social, economic and environmental.

All our designs are informed by the principles of site context, value of the existing landscape and environment, local culture and lifestyle, climatic considerations, and ultimately adaptive and responsive to future change. Our aim is to protect and enhance the existing landscape and ecosystems where they exist, and where the site conditions do not provide for this as in new urban environments, develop new landscapes that value and respect the context, both from an environmental lifestyle, cultural and social perspective.

SCI provides comprehensive range of landscape architectural services for projects from large scale multi-functional developments to small, intimate places, within the dense Asian cities, lower density urban communities through to resorts, and natural environments.