“Even if you have only a tiny piece of earth, you can create something beautiful, which we all have a great need for” – Audrey Hepburn

The initial brief centred around the creation of a modest family home for a young couple with children. They wanted their home to look modern with clean lines and lots of natural light.

From the outset we knew getting any considerable lush greenery around the house would be a challenge due to the narrow block width and the need for two car-width parking. The decision was made to insert pocket gardens on all three levels, covering surfaces and edges with good exposure to sky. The pocket gardens also provide a visual filter and relief between the house and the built streetscape.

Generous overhangs and the liberal use of warm timber tones together with a controlled palette of sail white give the house a sense of lightness and warmth. The house projects a façade of calm; its street presence is subdued and relaxed.

The living and dining area have sweeping ceiling-to-floor, wall-to-wall glass doors that can be opened to expand on dwelling space, dissolving the boundaries between indoor and outdoor. The timber and neutral colour palette is kept consistent throughout the house. The resultant spaces are well-balanced and pleasing in layout, colour and mood.

A sense of openness, minimality and connection is achieved through the casual arrangement of furniture, reinforced with the use of muted tones of white plaster and timber boards. This help inject a sense of warmth, simplicity and peace to the abode.

In contrast to the openness of the ground level, the bedrooms on the second storey are enclosed with a continuous band of timber sunscreen interspersed with bay-windows, providing pockets of private reading cove to every bedroom. For the family of five, they each have their own pocket of space to retreat to.

The Pocket Garden House embraces an unassuming sense of modern minimality, with a sheltering face of protection from its streetscape, allowing for a true sense of refuge to ensue.

“Look at the sunny side of everything” – Christian D. Larson

The site would not appeal to most local homebuyer as it immediately ticks several negative boxes for what are deemed liabilities in a residential semi-detached plot. It is long and narrow, with both the long side and front facing the western afternoon sun. The plot lies a metre below a public road that bounds the front and the ‘sunny’ side. In the local context, there would be environmental, layout and cultural issues to overcome.

The clients, a family of five, wanted a home that revolved around familial living and bonding. The implication of this ideal is that spaces need not be arranged or defined too rigidly for formal or cultural hierarchies. There are advantages to be had from a narrow plot as it naturally restricts the depth of rooms. The resulting spaces receive more natural light and are better ventilated due to the shallower proportion. The 1st storey is conceived to be a contiguous linear space, where living, dining, kitchen functions are serially arranged, but have little in the way of physical demarcation. Back of house spaces that need enclosing walls are aligned against the inner party wall and do not intrude into the informal living/dining/kitchen. In an Asian context, it is perceived as undesirable when a home is set lower than the surrounding public areas; mainly due to connotations of a lower status. Architecturally however, the lowered topography and resulting upturn along the lengthy boundary edge helps to delineate and suggest that the living space extends into the green. The perception is of greater space, yet it is private to the family through the deliberate use of slated boundary fencing and a tight row of bamboos. The fencing and landscaping conceal the change in level and the green ‘wall’ cools the filtered breeze and acts as a sunscreen to the 1st storey.

The second storey is the bedroom box, the rooms arranged in a row along the outer edge. Each room has generous private views out. The substantial heat gain from an afternoon of harsh tropical sun is mediated by the extensive use of timber screens beyond the openings. The strategy is not to fully block out but filter harsh light and heat. It vitally allows natural light and ventilation to still pass through. It enables the building to breath, airflow being essential to comfort within the tropics. The pivoted screens also double up to control visual privacy, and can be manually angled to adjust for individual preferences. The visually solid form of the 2nd storey is given texture and interest by the timber fins, alleviating what would be an oppressive block facing the public street.

The top floor is deliberately ‘lightened’, surrounded by full glass fenestration supporting a deep, overhanging roof. It reduces the visual mass from a compositional point of view, but also allows unobstructed enjoyment to distant views. A section of the top floor is once again a contiguous space for recreation. The entertainment space is not just for movies but more importantly for football league matches faithfully followed by friends and family, a regular event in this household. A foosball table and an open pantry support the pre and post-game excitement and a convenient guest room is available in case some decide to stay on.

Key to linking and encouraging full use of the house at all levels are the inboard corridors and stairs. The aesthetics are intentionally kept minimal and uncluttered. Numerous indirect skylights filter and bathe this multilevel space in light. The open thread stairs, slender handrails, stringers and frameless glass panels facilitate visual connections from the 1st to the top storey, making the perceptual space and volume larger, always inviting one to explore a different level.

Singapore Institute of Architects Architectural Design Award 2020
Shortlist for Individual House Category

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust

The Bamboo Veil House is a semi-detached house that sits on a bend in a street, resulting in a triangular plot with a narrow frontage. The original house was purchased by the owner many years ago and only minimal renovation had been done since then. The ageing house needed upgrading and the time had come for a re-build to fulfil long held desires and preferences.

The owner started with simple brief – a minimalist tropical house with a wide social space on the ground floor for family and friends to gather. His family longed for a private yet modern tropical home that responds to Singapore’s dense urban environment and tropical climate. He had also amassed a large collection of art through the years from various continents and saw this as an opportunity to well display them in the new house.

As his nuclear family unit and requirements for bedrooms were small, it was relatively easy to meet the spatial requirements and arranging them into the odd-shaped triangular plot. The ground floor was kept for dining and entertaining, bedrooms on the second floor and a study and family room on the attic level.

During a family vacation to Tokyo, the owner visited Nezu Museum by Kengo Kuma,and was enchanted by the bamboo cladded facade. Love at first sight, the texture and colour of bamboo left a deep impression and he was determined to clad his new house in bamboo.

Responding to the site with both form and function, the bamboo screen was conceptualised as a veil, wrapping around the building in a single continuous ‘cloth’. A unifying element, the bamboo screen flows around the rounded edges of the façade, creating a soft and organic layer sandwiched between the defined white eaves. The rounded edges of the façade respond to the street bend, such that when one approaches from the bend, one is greeted by a bamboo veil that shields its occupants from prying eyes. The natural colour of the bamboo against the white backdrop further accentuates the dominance of the veil.

When night falls, the house becomes a beacon along this street. Prominently situated at the turn, it glows like a delicate bamboo lantern. Light spills out from inside between the bamboo fingers, creating an interesting play of light and silhouette. Closely spaced, the screen offers privacy in both day and night. The screens can be closed in daytime to filter sunlight or opened for an unobstructed view. At night, the screens are closed for a sense of privacy and intimacy.

For an effective tropical response, the façade was designed as a double skin. The outer skin comprises of the operable vertically-laid bamboo screen and serves both privacy and solar protection functions. The inner skin is made up of aluminium-framed glass windows, allowing for natural ventilation in an all-weather condition or closed for air-conditioning on hot and humid days. The design offers flexibility for natural ventilation without compromising privacy, fulfilling the owner’s expectation of a tropical modern home. The bamboo veil thus acts as both a breathing façade and a privacy screen.

Material-wise, the bamboo is locally sourced, sustainable and eco-friendly. Bamboo is known for its light weight and high strength. It is easy to install, replace or repair. For the eco-conscious, this fast-growing material has a low carbon footprint. The design brief aligns with the owner’s concern for the environment as the bamboo screen is an opportunity to cool the house passively and reduce reliance on energy intensive air-conditioning. Operable bamboo screens and windows located throughout the 2nd Storey encourages natural ventilation while framing views to the external softscape.

The tropical design response is mirrored on the 1st Storey and Attic by a large overhang providing deep shade from the sun. The house is kept cool at all times. Inside, the interior furnishings are pared down to keep visual clarity and preserve the tranquility within each space and its function. The vast collection of artwork can be quietly enjoyed, presented in soft natural light. That visage of calm is also very much the experience when one encounters the Bamboo Veil house.

“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see” – Henry David Thoreau

This house sits on high ground, and the rear of the site has wonderful views overlooking the greener and more affluent residential addresses in Singapore. Our client’s brief was to design a home of two stories, with an attic, and importantly a roof terrace facing the rear and overlooking the valley.

The house is expressed by coupling two forms; a tall and narrow single-room width block housing the master bedroom, study and attic-living and the wider block at the rear accommodating two children bedrooms side by side. The formal expression the house is also a response to the strict local interpretation of attic guidelines.

The house deploys a multi-layered façade of operable glass doors and windows, a veil of operable vertical timber louvers punctuated by clear glass bay windows, horizontal aluminium sunscreen and vertically drawn blinds. Different expressions of material and composition but primarily enabling the owners to control the amount of sun screening, breeze, and view. Sometimes it is not just what the owners want to see, but what the neighbours can see of them.

Semi-detached houses tend to suffer from gloom in the deep central parts of the house. Unlike detached houses, semi-detached homes have only openings on three sides. Careful planning and understand the nature of daylight shifting throughout the day has resulted in daylight and breezes refreshing each corner of the house. Light and air wells are further slotted in-between the party wall and the house. All three levels are connected via a staircase finished in limestone.

The layout on the first storey is simple, comprising the living room, dining, kitchen, guest room and a small children’s pool. On the second storey, a family room and three bedrooms for our client and their two children. The master bedroom has a little study loft above and that is further linked to the attic living and roof terrace. Irrespective of level or location, the casual light that bathes the internal spaces of the house leaves no area undesirable but it is the casual attic terrace with its ‘million-dollar’ views that is the literal ‘light-house’; It’s such a hit that the owners host most of their parties and family gatherings on the third level, to see and be seen from all around.

“Home isn’t a place, it’s a feeling” – Cecelia Ahern

The family of six was outgrowing their apartment unit and needed a much larger space for the children entering their teenage years. Coincidentally, they purchased a semi-detached plot a few doors down from a house we previously designed, which eventually led the family to us.

The semi-detached house is oriented north/south, with the long side facing west. The house at the south-east face has an unblocked view between two neighbouring houses at the rear, providing an open vista to the landscape behind. The north-west front of the house faces the street and receives the afternoon sun. This makes the rear a coveted location for the bedrooms.

The brief called for a house spatially arranged around the family’s daily ritual and to foster family togetherness. As the children are of school-going age, it was important to ensure that they each have their own space for study and school-preparation in the morning. To encourage family bonding after school and work, the ground level was kept open – meals, homework, tuition, reading and games are to be held here. This was the primary factor in the spatial organisation. Architecturally, the owners wanted the house to be modern and tropical – comfortable and well-shielded from the elements of nature such as the sun, rain and mosquitoes. They had also requested that all the bedrooms were to be on the same level and were resolute in reserving the best side of the house for the children’s bedrooms.

The spatial programme was thus driven by a how the family lives as a daily ritual and how to create deliberate spaces for familial interaction. With this as the primary organiser, the layout for the three-storey house was then made clear with the public zone on the 1st Storey, bedrooms on the 2nd Storey and private family zone on the Attic. Each floor has visual or direct connection to gardens, planters or the surrounding landscape. The 1st Storey Living and Dining space was designed as an uninterrupted and continuous see-through space. During celebrations and large get-togethers, the dining and living spill over to the outdoors; the rear garden and car porch becomes a flexible and multi-functional extension of the indoors. The pocket of spaces within the open plan is defined by well-thought placement of furniture, unified by carpentry. The ground floor becomes a fluid space for family and friends to gather, meet and dine within one open space. The unifying carpentry wall delineates the open space from the Guest Room, Powder Room, Store and Wet Kitchen.

Three sides of the 1st Storey are enclosed by large sliding glass panels with lush greenery all around. When fully opened and tucked into pocket walls, the ground plane becomes a seamless transition between the inside and outside of the house. The living & dining space converts into a tropical veranda whereby the occupants enjoy abundant daylight, natural ventilation and unobstructed panoramic views of surrounding greenery. Generous overhanging eaves on the 1st Storey keep the direct sunlight and splashing rain at bay.

On the 2nd Storey, the Master Bedroom is located at the front, street-facing and with a view to its own private garden. The children’s bedroom at the rear opens out to the panoramic view behind. The children’s connection to nature is encouraged by allocating a garden terrace at the rear to share and tend to. The bedrooms are connected by a double volume library, where the love for reading is nurtured and heightened with sunlight pouring in from the skylight above. The library atrium, connected on both ends to pockets of landscaping is well-lit and ventilated. The ability to draw the natural world into the heart of the domestic realm and to accentuate the lofty ceiling are central design responses for a house in the tropics.

The tropical climate is addressed in this house through multiple layering, on the horizontal and vertical plane. Generous overhanging roof eaves provide shelter from sun and rain. Vertical layers of privacy screen and blinds filter off prying eyes and the harsh tropical sun. The result is delightful tropical shade that is cool and secure for the family to enjoy.

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” – Will Durant

The brief was a house large enough to accommodate a multi-generational family with grown-up children. Spacious enough for each to have their privacy, cosy enough for family bonding. This set us thinking on how to maximise every inch of the land within the restrictions of local building regulations. As the owner had the backing of a large construction firm; an award-winning builder recognised for their capabilities in large-scale projects and complex underground tunnel works, it was an opportunity not to be missed.

The builder’s A-team devised clever engineering techniques to excavate 5m deep on site, with neighbours standing less than 3m away. Consequently, the owner gained a full basement from the rear boundary to the front. It was no mean feat that an 8000sqft house was shoehorned into a 5500sqft plot as a result. They confessed later that a house is no less complex or challenging than their mega projects.

Fixed timber screens line the bridge into the house. Its scale and rhythm speak of solidity yet porosity. It offers a peek into the space beyond the threshold yet keeps unwelcome gazes out. Crossing over, a solitary tree rises upwards from below, indicating habitable space beneath. One senses that the exterior belies the interior.

The old school field at the back of the house inspired an open plan design with clear hierarchies of spaces within a rectilinear form. The ground plane was freed from walls; the continuum of spaces reinforced by a transparent staircase and lift core. The pool accentuates the visual depth of the house, reflecting the sky and its verdant surrounding, bouncing off surfaces, exuding calm. Here, as boundaries dissolve, nature is invited, uninterrupted and unencumbered.

Breeze flow down freely into the basement through the two strategically placed sunken gardens, forming air and light wells. This strategy befits the basement of habitation with its microclimate enhanced through natural ventilation and daylight. It becomes an extension of the ground plane as the family retreats below daily for work, play and conversations or for peace and tranquillity. Visibility and connection to adjacent spaces and the ground above are maintained through the voids and sunken gardens. The gaze is for insiders. The heart of the home beats here.

Timber screens become the device to soften solid rendered walls, offer privacy and unify the façade. This house breathes in Singapore’s humid weather; it is porous with ample sunlight and ventilation. The seamless flow between living spaces and the indoor garden makes “living with the trees” a second nature for the inhabitants, just as it is for the owner-cum-builder to add this labour of love to his body of work.

His love for building is manifested here, where the relationship between nature, architecture and its inhabitants is experienced and enjoyed daily.

“Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible” – Frank Zappa

As the brief was substantial, the overall form of the house needed to be pushed to the envelope limits. Naturally, there are also other considerations; the context and proximity of neighbouring homes, the daily sun path and the prevailing winds. Conceptually, the house is a raised reinforced concrete tube whose open ends are oriented in a general north-south direction. On this site, the prevailing breezes also blow in from the south, from the direction of the nearby coast line. In practice, all rooms have walls that side either east or west, and front north and south. The tubular structure resists east west heat gain thanks to the solid mass of the reinforced concrete but encourages passive cooling through the open north south axis. The north and south facades are treated with timber screens and their contribution is multifold. They are privacy filters for the bedrooms and are the first layer of glare and solar heat reduction to the spaces behind. The timber fins of the screen can also be angled so as to catch a breeze or to increase privacy as and when needed.

Family gatherings are a daily occurrence, and large celebratory functions also feature regularly for the client. The first storey is designed to be visually expansive and uncluttered, and encourages the intermingling of space, whether one moves through the garden, living or dining. The perceived spatial boundary is not architecturally delineated in a traditional sense, but by a soldier-line of narrow polyalthia trees along the boundaries of the site. However, architecturally, the trees provide a level of purpose no man-made wall is able to. It shields the house from neighbouring windows but its narrow footprint still allows sun to reach the grass, while freeing up space on the lawn for play and parties. What may not seem so obvious though is that the tines of polyalthias are literally evaporative fingers, combing the air of some of its heat each time the wind blows. The swimming pool is placed centrally between garden and living both as a focal centre and also as a central evaporative cooling surface.