Project: Contemporary Tower-Like Bungalow
Architects: Studio Wills + Architects
Location: Singapore
Area: 1,072 sqm
Year 2019
Photographer: Finbarr Fallon
Drone Photo Credits: Yeo Kai Wen & Lim Wei Xian
Located in an exclusive residential enclave of 106 semi-detached houses and 3 bungalows in Singapore, the project was envisioned, in the Master Plan, as 1 of the 2 buildings that provide visual ‘break’ to a group of semi-detached houses strung together like a ‘necklace’.
The bungalow is sited on a long and linear site, devoid of views. To avoid a wall-like structure, achieve a scale compatible with its smaller ‘neighbours’ and introduce courtyards for internal views, the permissible building volume was fragmented into smaller volumes of one-room depth.
The smaller building volumes ensure that all the interior spaces receive light, ventilation and views and are autonomous and independent of each other. Equipped with a comfortable equation of communality and privacy, the massing and planning sync with the programme of a multi-generational home.
The result is an architecture of prismatic, tower-like structures interspersed amongst courtyards and linked by a ‘connector’. The ‘towers’ constructed in concrete and finished in 2-tone sand colours and textures are akin to the surfaces and crevices of a rock. On the other hand, the ‘connector’ linking the ‘towers’ is black, sleek and contrasting.
Moving within the interior of the bungalow, one experiences alternating qualities of solid and void, shade and light, indoors and outdoors with the surprise of secret gardens and courtyards nested amongst the ‘towers’.
