House Tour: Forever House, A landed house with 6-car garage and 25m swimming pool in Serangoon
“The clients were clear that they didn’t want anything boring. They wanted something outstanding, something with street presence,” says architect Robin Tan of Wallflower Architecture and Design, about this 10,800 sq ft (1,003 sqm) home located in a quiet north-eastern neighbourhood in Singapore.
For Tan, architecture always starts with site planning and the sloping plot of land had its own particular set of characteristics that dictated certain design decisions.
House elevated 4m above ground level
Elevated 4 metres above ground, the plot allowed for site space to be increased by a full 5,000 sq ft (464 sqm), as the driveway and carpark could be neatly tucked underground.
But the density of the neighbourhood, with houses crammed in together, led to a sense of a lack of both space and privacy.
“There is a tall structure on one side, and an old house on the other side which would in time also be built up, so the idea was to be defensive, with ‘shields’, and to look inwards. And this formed the basis of how the house was designed, to handle the future,” explains Tan.
The result is a U-shaped structure, with the public spaces for dining, living and entertaining on the ground floor, pivoting around the central pool.
Beige travertine exterior
Tan shares that maintaining the sharp angles with the beige travertine they had decided to clad the façade with was challenging.
“Contractors kept telling us that it just couldn’t be done,” says Tan.
Undeterred, he relied on sound engineering expertise to get the job done, using steel plates to extend out from the concrete base wall to form the shape, before cladding them with travertine cut to achieve the sharp points.
25 Metre Swimming Pool
“The tree planter allows daylight and ventilation into the garage below, while providing a focal point for the pool. It also balances out the glass and steel and stone with some greenery.”
The T-shaped pool runs the length of 25 metre along the front of the property. It also sits above ground, instead of being sunken in, because of space restrictions due to the garage below.
Statuario marble flooring
To counter the tropical climate, Tan included cooling Statuario marble flooring, sun-shading fins and sliding doors to open the house to natural ventilation
Basement Wine Cellar
The wine cellar in the basement is floored and shelved in teak wood, and kept at a constant 13.8 deg C. It can hold 500 to 700 bottles of wine.
This article was first published on The Peak Singapore in July 2018.