© Michael Weber

Singapore

The city-state’s collaged architectural history—a mix of Malay, colonial and Art Deco aesthetics—has allowed Singapore relatively free play in its new buildings. Take the $5.7 billion Marina Bay Sands complex (from $300; marinabaysands.com), which opened in June. An attempt to reshape the skyline, as one insider put it, the building’s three 55-story sloping towers, designed by Boston-based Moshe Safdie, rise from reclaimed land to encompass shops, 50 restaurants, a huge casino and the country’s largest hotel. Marina Bay Sands’ most innovative feature is the three-acre Sands SkyPark—a cantilevered platform with an observation deck, a restaurant and a 490-foot-long infinity pool—that connects the tops of the towers. The project is “more than a building,” says Safdie. “It is a microcosm of a city.”

Close by, the new, 111-room Fullerton Bay Singapore (from $310; fullertonbayhotel.com) showcases Singapore’s DP Architects and Hong Kong’s Andre Fu. A sister property to the city’s Fullerton Hotel, which occupies a 1928 post office building, the new Fullerton Bay is, according to Fu, “a modern colonial hotel that pays tribute to that bygone era.”

Fu is also behind Cassia, the Chinese fusion restaurant at Capella Singapore (from $540; capellasingapore.com), on nearby Sentosa Island. Incorporating two 1880s buildings, the new hotel now features a dramatically curved, Norman Foster–designed wing that reflects the soft contours of the surrounding land.

New boutique properties are also boosting the hotel scene. Wanderlust’s (from $145; wanderlusthotel.com) four floors were each done by a different local design company, while The Club (from $150; theclub.com.sg) is by the Singapore firm Ministry of Design. And at Klapsons (from $200; klapsons.com), Italian design house Sawaya & Moroni installed Pucci-pink lighting and a 16-foot-diameter silver pod—known as the Steel Sphere—as a reception area in the lobby.