Home With Impressive Swimming Pool

Located in the island’s tiny King Albert Park, this Singapore home is a textbook example of what can happen when the natural surroundings and sensible orientation are incorporated into the design.

For starters, the six bedroom house dates back to the overgrowth of the abandoned Malay railroad. For the architects ONG & ONG, the lush green corridor creates an ideal framework. They incorporated Shakkei, the traditional Japanese design philosophy of borrowed views for the home, to capture the rustic landscape as best as possible.

In particular, the house consists of three neatly stacked volumes made of reinforced concrete. The first volume connects the driveway with the foyer and a guest room that opens onto the garden. The second volume contains the living room, kitchen and dining area. while the last volume sits over the public spaces and contains the bedrooms.

All three volumes are carefully oriented away from direct sunlight and facing the railway corridor, while transversely ventilated rooms are created. The upstairs bedrooms are clad in a shell made of retractable zircon wood lattice that runs the length of the house, while deep overhangs provide passive climate control and protection from the elements.

The use of natural materials is omnipresent: the driveway is lined with limestone and textured concrete, the floors with zircon wood, granite in the bathrooms, travertine in the living room and Cohiba stone in tobacco color in the basement.

The jade green landscape enhances the impression of a tropical hole and creates a seamless relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces. The architects installed a pane of glass in the underground multimedia room, which looks into the 25 m high sports pool above.