▲ Spaces are experienced as a continuum that encourages a natural flow, modulating between inside and out; openness and seclusion.
◀ The facade takes shape as a composition of volumes—an architecture shaped not only by mass but the voids that give it meaning.
Singapore, 2023
Photography: Derek Swalwell
MAKE houSe was designed to embody a playful spirit—much like a Play-Doh factory with volumes, spaces, and spiral staircases extruded from the main volume. The primary aim of the design concept was to create dynamic and fun living spaces—that are full of life, movement, and playfulness—inspiring a sense of delight for our clients in their new family home.
The design of MAKE houSe was approached volumetrically, formed by a series of interconnected spaces that interlock with, and flow seamlessly into, each other. This has enabled whimsical visual connections between family members even as they inhabit different parts of the house. A volumetric approach to designing MAKE houSe, as well as placement of windows, created a Venturi effect that has enhanced natural and cross ventilation through the spaces. Solar panels top the house to help reduce reliance on non-renewable energy sources through its lifetime.
The Play-Doh extrusions are key features of MAKE houSe, each one unique in architectural identity and expression that injects that bit of fun, character, and charm into the home. A sense of surprise and delight beckons one around every corner of the house, inviting exploration and discovery. As our clients return home each day, they are immediately greeted by the main visual interest in the space—a bright red spiral staircase that is the main vertical circulation within the house. For the curious, portholes along the second-story corridor offer a peek into the suspended swimming pool behind the internal courtyard.
The material palette was deliberately kept simple with everyday materials such as brick, steel, and timber. It was therefore left to the detailing and color palette to bring the design concept and the sense of play and fun from the macro through to the micro.
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◀ A defining feature as one steps into the house, the sculptural spiral staircase was originally black until the clients and their children voted for it to be spray-painted red.
▶ Spaces within the house were planned to capture both the greenery within the courtyard, and the expansive greenery beyond our site.
◀ The kitchen receives generous daylight and natural ventilation throughout the day—a well-utilized space for casual meals and hosting friends.
Singapore, 2021
Photography: Khoo Guo Jie
Nestle is designed to house four families the parents, their three children, and their respective families. The project was conceived as a fragmented mass inserted into the existing topography, with a landscaped courtyard unifying the separate masses and providing an outdoor space for communal interaction. Despite the challenges in addressing varying needs for the different families (typical for a multigenerational home), a prevalent desire for an idyllic communal living posited an opportunity to reexamine what it means to blur the boundaries between inside and out, embracing tropicality, and catering for gathering spaces that extend toward the outdoors.
Located in the basement, the courtyard is a communal space carved out of the existing topography. Here, the basement is brightly lit and an impressionable focal point upon arrival, far from the common perception of basements being devoid of daylight. The courtyard and the house around it were designed with interrelationship in mind, where semblances of the surrounding green can be felt within the internal spaces. The landscape within the courtyard can thus be perceived as malleable as it creeps deeply into key communal spaces, making it perceivable from street level, redefining the archetype of an insular courtyard.
More importantly, in a tropical context defined by intense sunlight and high humidity, lattice-like sunscreens diffuse the harsh western daylight entering the habitable areas, reducing cooling loads while engaging an interplay of light and shadow. Key communal spaces were also designed to be opened externally on two ends to be cross ventilated and passively cooled. To embrace the idyllic spirit of tropicality thus goes beyond the integration of landscape and architecture, and also takes into consideration the enclosures of space that defines thermal comfort.
Singapore, 2019
Photography: Khoo Guo Jie
Nestled in a quiet, low-rise enclave, this semidetached home finds its place across a small but verdant park—the key factor that convinced our client to purchase this plot. This view thus served as a compass, inspiring the home to unfold and open up towards the green beyond. The result is a structure that feels more pavilion than house-like—lightweight and open, in perpetual dialogue with the landscape.
The first story unfolds with ease. There are no strict separations; only a fluid sequence of spaces that glide into one another. Shaded from the tropical sun by a series of elongated planes, the outdoor veranda that blurs the line between internal and external. The owners have since delightedly shared that this interstitial space is now the heart of the home.
A simple yet defining gesture of the house is its void, which pierces through the expansive canopies. This introduces a moment for the contextual green to begin to spill into the house, threading through the architecture. The void becomes both an anchor and axis, creating opportunities for a layered spatial and visual experience.
The materials here speak in contrast and harmony, with the use of oak lending a tactile calm and softening the sleek aluminum frames. This interplay of materials tie back to the home’s spirit— open and modern, yet grounded and deeply rooted in nature.
▲ Our client loves to bake for, and host, their friends. The dry kitchen and its large island facilitate these social gatherings.
◀ The courtyard in the center of the house is a shared space between the two families, and was especially appreciated during the Covid-19 pandemic.
