Home Tour: A couple & 2 kids' move from Marine Parade HDB to inter-terrace house at Upper Thomson ($985,000 Rebuild)
With the appropriate architectural design and construction approach, it is possible to build a landed home on a modest budget.
By Lynn Tan -
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Acquiring that first landed property is a significant milestone for many people, including this couple who upgraded from their HDB flat in Marine Parade to an inter-terraced home in Upper Thomson.
Who Lives Here: A couple with two young kids
Home: An inter-terraced home in Upper Thomson
Size: 1,500 sq ft (land area)
2,140 sq ft (Gross Floor Area, GFA)
Rebuild Cost: $980,000
Interior Designer: The Design Abode Pte Ltd, Wkl Architects
The couple enjoys relaxing to music and a vintage hi-fi makes for a fitting showpiece in their living room alongside a custom-built plywood shelving unit.
Demolished Terrace House
As the existing house was single-storey, it made sense to demolish it and rebuild a new two-storey home with an attic that would better meet their needs and that of their two children, aged five and three.
The Design Abode was the interior designer for their flat and they decided to engage the homegrown practice as the design consultant for the reconstruction project. Licensed architectural services such as authority compliance were undertaken by their in-house architectural arm, WKL Architects.
$980,000 Rebuilding Cost
With the cost of the property already taking up a sizeable chunk of the clients’ budget, The Design Abode director, Toh Ming Hui, and architect, Shaunice Ten, had to be prudent when it came to the design and building works.
“It helped that the couple’s spatial requirements were not extravagant. They needed just enough rooms for the two of them, their two kids, and an additional guest cum study room,” says Ming Hui.
A lightweight,
prefabricated
staircase
minimises in-
situ works to
achieve greater
cost-savings.
With this in mind, the duo came up with cost-effective strategies that would allow them to address the clients’ brief and other functional aspects without compromising on their design intent, while adhering to the $980,000 budget.
Structural efficiency is achieved by arranging and stacking the rooms and bathrooms along the length of one party wall and locating the outdoor terraces, indoor courtyards, atrium and voids on the opposite half of the long and narrow plot.
Terrace House Structure
By arranging and stacking the rooms and bathrooms on one half of the long and narrow plot along the length of one party wall, the architects were able to achieve a structural efficiency by keeping the walls and structural works contained within a smaller footprint.
The other half consists of open-plan spaces straddled by tiered “gardens”, a concept that is central to the design, in the form of outdoor terraces, indoor courtyards, atrium and voids.
Every room opens out to an external area, which serves as a sort of “borrowed” space.
Within the atrium is a lightweight, prefabricated staircase that is proprietary from a local fabricator. It minimises in-situ works, which contributes towards cost-savings.
The external
façade offers
hints of
the home’s
architectural
concept.
Maximising outdoor spaces
Another strategy in light of the clients’ limited budget was to minimise the Gross Floor Area (GFA) but take advantage of what a landed property can offer - outdoor spaces.
“The rooms may be small, but we maximise their liveability by having every room open out to an external area, in a way ‘borrowing’ space from the outdoors,” says Shaunice.
The attic family room opens out to a generous roof terrace.
On the first storey, the front patio adjacent to the living room allows for entertainment activities to spillover outdoors and for hosting barbeque parties.
The guest bedroom has access to a rear terrace.
The master bedroom on the second storey gets a balcony where the homeowners can chill out next to the front garden above the car porch.
In addition to an indoor playroom, the kids also have a terrace for outdoor play.
The multi-purpose family room on the attic level opens out to a fairly sizeable roof terrace that is great for entertaining or alfresco dining.
An Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman is a nod to the home’s architectural inspiration.
Eames House Inspiration
Ming Hui and Shaunice drew inspiration from the Eames House, a self-designed home and studio in Los Angeles belonging to husband-and-wife team, Charles and Ray Eames.
It is a widely-referenced case study that exemplifies the building of a house efficiently and with a modest budget by simplifying the construction through the use of prefabricated materials and modular design.
The bare marine ply, natural terrazzo counters and stainless steel backsplash all pay homage to mid-century living.
Mid-Century Modern
The Eames House reflects the principles of mid-century modernism that is typically characterised by clean, simple lines and the honest use of materials that eschew decorative adornment.
“Taking cues from the Eames House, we kept the elements honest and unembellished. We worked with whitewashed walls and structure, bare marine ply joinery, cement screed and classic ceramic and terracotta tiles,” Shaunice points out.
The atrium and open-riser staircase make for an interesting play of light and shadow.
The clients particularly love the look and feel of plywood and many of the built-ins within the home are fabricated using bare marine ply. Charles and Ray Eames pioneered plywood moulding and collaborated with Herman Miller on many furniture pieces, including the Eames Lounge Chair and Ottoman, which take pride of place in the living room.
The design of the open-concept kitchen is derived from its utilitarian nature without being mundane. As with the rest of the home, it enjoys plenty of daylight and cross-ventilation from the atrium and rear windows, along with views of greenery from the rear garden and indoor courtyard.
Open Concept Home
As the homeowners are accustomed to open-concept living and flexible spaces, communal area such as the kitchen have been kept open as the couple enjoys spending time dishing out meals together.
Loose furniture keeps the spaces flexible.
The children’s bedroom opens to a side terrace that is also an extended outdoor play area.
Rooms such as the dining and living can easily be swapped around. The first storey bedroom can be converted into a study and the play area on the second storey can also become an additional bedroom.
The multi-purpose attic offers a flexible space for entertaining or for the family to relax, accompanied by a view of Lower Peirce Reservoir.
Light from the atrium fills the home and makes the spaces bright, airy and welcoming.
The void establishes spatial and visual connections between levels.
Terrace house construction took 18 months
The family moved into their new home in September 2022 after an 18-month construction, which took longer than anticipated due to delays from safe management restrictions, manpower shortage, material supply and prefabrication as a result of the pandemic.
The Design Abode firmly believes in the crafting of honest environments and unpretentious spatial solutions.
“This project, with its compact yet flexible spaces and stripped down interiors in line with the clients’ preferences, reflects this ethos,” says Ming Hui.