House Tour: This 5,000sqf wood and concrete home in Kheam Hock Road is an urban oasis
By Home & Decor Team -
Behind this fortified concrete mass is a cosy, intimate communal space perforated by a central skylight. This was Formwerkz Architect’s solution to a client who wanted to house a family of seven (and two helpers), and needed somewhere to seek respite from the world - and the expressway - directly outside.
This story was first published on The Peak.
The client is extremely sensitive to sound due to the nature of his job as an otolaryngologist - a doctor who specialises in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. Thus, because the 5,000 sq ft house is situated beside a highway, it was cardinal that its design helped to mitigate, if not nullify the bustle of the outdoors.
Material-wise, the house primarily utilises rough, board-formed concrete and marine plywood, which in turn is complemented by touches of galvanised steel and brass.
Nature and greenery finds its away into the house's design, making it an oasis of serenity set in the backdrop of a bustling city.
The materials are specifically chosen to encapsulate time, embracing and retaining all of life’s traces through the ages.
Both Formwerkz and their client agreed that beauty is best told by the stories within, and thus embarked on a project which employed materials that could embody the same spirit.
The result is a timeless, stylishly designed abode that challenges the conventions of modernism in new-age architecture and design - a tranquil, undisturbed grotto of sorts, that promotes and protects rest amid one of the busiest and fastest-moving economies in Southeast Asia.