The project is in a hilly mature neighbourhood surrounded by detached houses of more than 40 years old. The original house has always been tenanted out and was left in a very bad condition. The owner approached us with only one objective, which is to rebuild the dilapidated house so that he could tenant the house into a dual-key unit via two separate access within the same house. We were also given a relatively low budget for the project, hence the design of a small footprint just enough to cater for small families.
With these challenges in mind and knowing the potential of the site as it is situated on higher ground, we came out with an unconventional design approach, which is to design a dual-unit house that has the upper and lower floors completely facing the opposite orientation. The upper floor plate is skewed away towards the rear where it is greeted by a 180-degree unobstructed view of the city skyline while the floor below faces the side lawn.
Besides that, the upper floor rotation is also to strategically position the mass away from the harsh western sun without compromising the framed view of the city skyline. The dynamic form of the house created a pocket of balconies on the upper floor while the cantilevered structure gives shade to the patio of the house below.
The front façade is deliberately kept to a minimum in order to stay within the stipulated budget, giving the expression of a monolithic structure floating lightly above the ground plinth. The ventilation blocks appear as a strong solid base to the cantilevered floor above, they are arranged in an ascending order towards the steel door with the intention of providing an extra layer of privacy to the occupants below as both floors share the same access. The dynamic form of this scheme is further exemplified by a series of carefully placed slanting steel columns; a unique feature of the house where most of the social interaction takes place.
The unconventional brief calls for an unconventional design, the original site is now given a new breath of life with a dual purpose; a house and a home studio. The design enables both occupants to co-exist and interact at the same time maintaining their respective privacies.
