House 28

Built for a multi-generational family whose aspirations are of deeply-seated Asian values of communal living. The inherent brief thus calls for a mindful interpretation of what it means to live together, yet at the same time address the multiplicity of lifestyles and individualities within an idyllic tropical climate. This is especially so, in a densely populated housing landscape in the context of Singapore, where space has become increasingly a scarcity. The resultant architecture is thus paradoxically coherent and vastly disparate whilst negotiating cultural norms and values.

Design Concept, site challenges, description and considerations:

As seen in many local multi-generational homes, the house is envisioned to be bound by strong ties and family cohesion. Architecturally, this meant catering for interconnectivity between each disparate household block through a unifying mass that reinforces the imagery of the project being a coherent multi-generational home. Blurring the boundaries between architecture and landscape, the communal block blends into the naturalistic earth of the site, visually reducing the mass of the project, while paying homage to the proximate Bukit Timah Hill. Hinged upon the strong Asian values of community, an emphasis of communal living and activities within the unifying mass surrounds the central courtyard promoting many opportunities for family interaction to occur. Yet, dedicated in providing meaningful green breakout spaces for private areas of respite within a family, leftover unbuilt pockets of green were also planned and designed to be refreshingly different to suit a variety of individualized preferences. 

Environmental Considerations and technology:

More importantly, in a tropical context that is plagued with erratic harsh sunlight and high humidity, thermal comfort and sensitivity to the woes of the tropics were key in designing the enclosures of each space. Lattice-like sunscreens diffuse the harsh western daylight entering key living spaces, reducing cooling loads while engaging an interplay of light and shadow. Large key spaces are also designed to be opened externally on two ends to be cross ventilated and passively cooled. Experientially, this simultaneously becomes an opportunity to embrace the idyllic characteristics of tropicality where thresholds of inside and outside also become obscure. Akin to a hollowed earth that is cavernous, communal spaces connect pocket of green together, creating a strong interplay of light and dark as one flows from one pocket of green to another.

Contribution to the evolution of houses:

Multi-generational homes often assume a stratified mass where every nuclear family within the same household inhabits a storey each. Living in a house thus becomes akin to living in an apartment where one is confined to his prescribed quarters. Hence, the project instead adopts a notional sub-division of the plot where each nuclear family is instead given a smaller plot with a multi-leveled home within.

Also, often associated as having an autonomous relationship with one another, nature and its surroundings interrelate, where semblances of nature can be felt inside through gestures of boulderscapes. Boundaries between landscape and peripheral buildings are thus blurred, allowing for malleable landscaping that steers away from an insular courtyard archetype. A commonly perceived introverted green now takes on the possibility to become one that peaks through at street level with the opening of sliding pocket doors, a seamless continuity of landscape formed by multiplicities of green.