Tropical rigour: this family house in a Singapore suburb is an elegant response to a tropical climate.The two partners of WOHA WOHA Washington Occupational Health Associates Architects, Richard Hassell and Wong Mun n. 1. The mouth. One a penny, two a penny, hot cross buns, Butter them and sugar them and put them in your muns. - Old Rhyme. Summ, met while working in the offices of Kerry Hill in the early '90s and have since gone on to become one of the most imaginative young practices in South-East Asia South-East Asia n → le Sud-Est asiatique South-East Asia south n → Südostasien nt South-East Asia n → . Their growing portfolio is mainly residential, ranging from condominiums to individual houses, but also includes a first prize in an open international competition for two Singapore MRT stations The following lists all rail stations of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) system in Singapore, with underground stations listed in italics. There are currently 64 stations in operation with another one completed but operationally delayed until its surrounding area is more built up. , in which they saw off much larger established firms such as Arup, Foster and SOM. One recent notable residential project is the Hua Guan guan: see curassow. House, a north-facing, two-storey, semi-detached dwelling on a corner site. The site is also relatively long in the east-west direction Noun 1. east-west direction - in a direction parallel with lines of latitude direction, way - a line leading to a place or point; "he looked the other direction"; "didn't know the way home" , so avoiding the sun's glare at dawn and in the late afternoon. Like all the practice's projects, the design is based on a strong conceptual diagram that anchors subsequent formal and spatial development. Here, the house is divided into four distinct zones. The first is a circulation spine consisting of a 2.5m wide, 20m long gallery that extends along the southern boundary. This is entered from the west end and is punctuated by two dramatic double-storey lightwells, with the second storey illuminated by continuous clerestorey glazing. Next is a habitation HABITATION, civil law. It was the right of a person to live in the house of another without prejudice to the property. 2. It differed from a usufruct in this, that the usufructuary might have applied the house to any purpose, as, a store or manufactory; whereas zone that runs through both storeys. At first floor level this comprises a study, living room, dining room and breakfast/kitchen arranged in a linear fashion facing north. Immediately above are the master bedroom, family room and three children's bedrooms (democratically exactly the same size for each child). [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] All rooms have a single aspect into the third zone, a two-storey high, 3m wide verandah, with a thin flat roof carried on slim stainless-steel circular columns. The remaining space is given over to a recreation zone and this too is rigorously linear, with a 25m long pool and poolside gazebo gazebo Lookout in the form of a turret, cupola (small, lanternlike dome), or garden house set on a height to give an extensive view. Few late-18th- and 19th-century rustic gazebos survive, but 17th-century turrets built up in an angle of the garden wall are not uncommon. shoehorned into the widest part of the site. The remaining narrow strip has been heavily planted to protect the privacy of the outdoor area. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The thoughtful investigation and implementation of a strong concept is evidently one key to the success of WOHA's maturing oeuvre. On such increasingly densely developed suburban sites they also employ a number of well-tried gambits. One is to 'invert' the house, in the sense that the majority of the large opening windows are at first-storey level and open out on to private space. Upper-storey windows generally overlook private areas for, as Wong remarked of an earlier house, 'It is quite impossible to control the view out; what today may be a tract of unspoiled forest may tomorrow be a multi-storey office.' Here, bedroom and family room windows face inwards over the swimming pool and have folding timber louvred screens. The generous roof overhang ensures they can be opened even in the monsoon season. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a 1987 essay, Wong wrote of his admiration for Herman Hertzberger's 'energetic emphasis on detailing and reinterpretation re·in·ter·pret tr.v. re·in·ter·pret·ed, re·in·ter·pret·ing, re·in·ter·prets To interpret again or anew. re of tectonics tectonics Scientific study of the deformation of the rocks that make up the Earth's crust and the forces that produce such deformation. It deals with the folding and faulting associated with mountain building; the large-scale, gradual, upward and downward movements of the and syntax.' The two partners also admire Scarpa's approach to detailing, though Hassell considers that in the work of both architects: 'The parts are more than the whole, whereas at WOHA we attempt to create an architecture where all the parts contribute to the whole'. In the Hua Guan House, the consistently high quality of detailing adds to the overall clarity of the architecture. For this critic, it is an evolving transcultural language that effortlessly integrates the principles of Modernism with traditional responses to a tropical climate A tropical climate is a type of climate typical in the tropics. Köppen's widely-recognized scheme of climate classification defines it as a non-arid climate in which all twelve months have mean temperatures above 18°C (64.4 °F). . [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Architect WOHA Architects, Singapore Photographs Tim Griffith HOUSE, SINGAPORE ARCHITECT WOHA ARCHITECTS |
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