House of Remembrance in Singapore

About

The traditional Chinese courtyard house or siheyuan is a typology well-known for its illustration of Confucian ideals, gathering several generations of the same family. In harmony with this way living together, the project had to accommodate three siblings under one roof, replacing their shared house; in addition, it should include a memorial garden for their late mother; and lastly, the new construction should retain the memory of the pitched-roof form, a defining feature of their childhood home. To combine the client’s emotional attachment to this form with an efficient scheme, the new two-story house organizes all communal spaces on the lower level around a central garden, with expansive glass walls to maximize visual transparency and connect all spaces. All private bedrooms, located on the upper introverted level, are housed within the roof’s steep gables and open up to the perimeter gardens. The two spaces clearly differentiated in section are visually connected in three double-height areas that allow one to peer into the public realm from the private. The exterior is defined by its smooth concrete plinth, the roof planks, which adopt the texture of Malay constructions, and the carved balconies, skylights, and voids.

Sources

• Arquitectura Viva