The Greja House, Bedok Property, Singapore Home Images, Architecture Design, Architect

The Greja House

Bedok Residence: Singaporean Contemporary Home, Southeast Asia design by Park Associates

updated 17 Apr 2016 with award news ; updated 8 Nov 2015 with photos ; 7 Sep 2015

The Greja House in Singapore

Design: Park Associates

Location: Bedok, Singapore

The Greja House Single Family Residential House by Park + Associates Pte Ltd is Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design Category, 2015 – 2016.

The brief for The Greja House from the client was simple. They asked a house in which the various spaces are connected to each other and promotes interactions within the household. Furthermore, the client wanted a house that is markedly different from its context – a design with clean lines.

Concept
The property in Bedok revisits the fundamental role of a home – providing an environment that bonds a family. The design sought to heighten the occupants’ sensorial awareness and to increase domestic interactions. To that end, the scheme imagines domestic spaces connected within a flow. Key to the idea of flow are notions of connection and circulation, which informed the way the spaces are composed.

Departing from the conventional approach where walls are used to define space, the domestic programmes are composed as interconnected voids. It opens up the spaces to connect and communicate with one another across multiple directions, creating an expanded network of connections that increases the opportunities for familial interactions.

Material & Construction
The key feature of the house is the ethereal envelope that veils the private spaces of the house. The perforation aperture, density, and pattern of the white screen was studied to understand how it would affect privacy, lighting as well as heat transmission.

The adopted solution – white powder coated expanded metal lathe spot welded to steel sections provided a cost effective design feature. Detailing was kept minimal to reflect a clean and refined aesthetic favoured by the client. The interior finishes comprise a palette of white marble, granite slabs, and bamboo flooring.

Planning Constraints
The key challenge was to develop a continuous space through the composition of geometric elements. This void and volume composition unifies the various functional spaces, creating a perception of flowing space.

Keeping most of the spaces unbounded by walls promotes visual connectivity and encourages domestic interactions.

Sustainable Architecture
As the scheme sought to maximise the openness of the house, it was crucial for the façade to take on several functional roles. Crucially, it has to provide effective mitigation against the harsh sunlight as well as allow wind to pass through. Designed as a permeable second skin, the envelope allows daylight and natural ventilation to filter through, while deflecting a significant amount of heat.

This helps with the conservation of energy and promotes natural cooling through cross ventilation within the main areas of the house. The elongated air well next to the living area, coupled with an adjacent vertical green wall, allows cooled air to circulate in the house. The water feature is also strategically placed in the centre of the house to encourage convective breeze.

The Greja House in Singapore information / images received from Park Associates

Park Associates Singapore

TEAM MEMBERS:
Lim Koon Park, Christina Thean and Adrian A.Gesmundo

IMAGE CREDITS:
Edward Hendricks, copyright Park+Associates Pte Ltd

Site Area: 353.50 m2 GFA: 392.22 m2

Park + Associates Pte Ltd

Park + Associates seeks to create coherent spaces where function and beauty speak a common language. For the firm, the dialogue of architectural elements shapes a space, takes it beyond its everyday, functional character. It is with this ethos that Park + Associates pursues a vision of architecture as a fundamental articulation of space and form, through which beauty and purity can be discovered.

The architecture firm’s strategy is one of subtraction and control to preserve the necessary simplicity of spaces. Each project is undertaken with a rigorous eye for detail, placement and materials, with an artistic sensitivity to the “intangibles” of light, space and form. Charting a journey for the user in an unique space; creating sophisticated spaces that inspire, invigorate, and refine the senses – that is what Park + Associates sets out to achieve. In tandem with its explorations of spaces, the firm remains sensitive to environmental concerns, seeking to appropriate eco-friendly materials and strategies into each project.

Greja House in Singapore information / images from A’ Design Awards & Competition

The Greja House by Park + Associates – winner at A’ Design Awards & Competition

Location: Bedok, Singapore