Having moved from a three-bedroom condominium, the owners were adamant that their new detached home didn’t feel like just another bigger apartment. “I did not want overly large spaces. Instead, I wanted many smaller spaces my family and I could gravitate to as we engaged in different activities in the course of a day,” says the man of the house.

With this brief in mind, the architects went about conceptualising a home made up of an assemblage of programmes that are not immediately apparent, but which gradually reveal themselves as you progress through the spaces.

“It is a home with many nooks and crannies. It can accommodate large family gatherings spread over different spaces and rooms,” says Iskandar.

This cosy bay window outside the daughter’s bedroom, for instance, extends into the courtyard.

Two perforated shells make up the datum across multiple split levels between which the spaces are organised.

An outer shell frames the outdoors and an inner one wraps around a garden courtyard that extends to the full height of the house.

The spaces flow and unfold across multiple split levels in-between these two shells, creating a dialogue with the openings strategically punctured into the shells.

Plants of different heights are matched to  the location, size and height of the windows to frame the views.

Iskandar points out: “Walls delineate boundaries. However, the openings in them connect, frame and blur the divisions.”

Depending on where you are and your angle of view, apertures may align or misalign.

The space on the opposite side of the courtyard, for example, is concealed when your line of sight changes, thereby allowing you to discover new vistas as you meander through the spaces.

It is hard to say exactly how many storeys the house, which cost $3.9 million to build, has because of the myriad split levels that give it a maze-like effect.

Due to the undulating topography, access to the basement garage is at street level. An outdoor staircase around the side of the garage takes you directly up to the pool deck and the entrance leading to the living area.

Entering through the door in the garage, you arrive at a basement foyer whose restive quality feels like a purposeful pause before you venture further.

The basement chill-out space is just missing an oversized artwork on the double-storey wall.

A dramatic staircase spirals its way from the music area to the main floor. Being elevated above the road gives this level a sense of privacy, especially when looking out over the pool deck adjacent to the living area.

A few steps up from the living area is the dining room and the dry and wet kitchens at the back of the house.

In creating maze-like spaces, colours in strategic places serve as visual markers, like this red spiral staircase.

From here, a straight flight of stairs leads further down into the basement, where there’s an acoustically sound entertainment room and a multipurpose chill-out zone. A few steps up from the basement foyer, a music area overlooks the space below.

Tucked into a corner beside the dining area is the playroom that’s modelled after a miniature house, complete with a secret reading loft and a slide.

The couple’s new home has become a gathering place for the extended family, partly because the playroom – a miniature house, complete with a slide and a staircase leading to a secret reading nook – is a hit with the kids.

Then, as you gradually work your way up and around the central courtyard, more spaces and vistas reveal themselves with each ascending step and turn.

The entrance foyer on the first level is now an arts and crafts area for the daughter. The adjacent bathroom is perfect for a quick wash.

A study here, a family room and guest room there, a peek at the daughter’s bedroom across the courtyard, a window that frames a bird perched on a tree branch and, finally, the master suite located right  at the top of the house.

The arches and marble finishes in the master bathroom evoke a Roman bath ambience.

The staggered circulation may seem less efficient to some but, in designing it, the architects wanted to focus on the spatial experience. “We want people to slow down and appreciate the spaces they are passing through,” Iskandar emphasises.

The layering of views – inwards versus outwards, nature versus man-made and dynamic versus static – create a rich, spatial tapestry.

The recurring rectilinear motifs in the dining area and dry kitchen echo the geometry of the windows.

The lowered ceiling and narrow proportions of the study create a different spatial experience.

The family moved into their new home in January 2020. The homeowner shared that it did feel big initially, but the smaller spaces helped mitigate the scale.

For the architects, this project was about elevating the inhabitants’ experience and sensitising them to the beauty often taken for granted.

The myriad windows in the house are like picture frames. Unlike static paintings, they offer dynamic views that change with the viewer’s position and the time of day.

“A house is more than a shelter or a collection of rooms. It can be imbued with more of a richness of experience and meaning. These aspirations have always been our guiding light in interrogating the domestic space to become more transformative or at least more delightful to live in, take root and age in place,” Alan concludes.

photography TAN WEI TEE & VEE CHIN

art direction NONIE CHEN & KRISTY QUAH

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