Kim’s Residence

Kim’s Residence

This house was designed as a response to unique challanges of the small site area of 7mx15m. The architect was challanged to design a house that fit the client’s brief and at the same time putting climatic context in mind. As a result, the two voids within the house was proposed to already small site within the house. The voids on each opening enables more natural light penetrate into the house and reduces the overall temperature of the house during the day by allowing hot and cool air to circulate around.

The collaboration between all parties (the owner, the architect and the builders) led them to establish the dream house on the site in the interest of having a healthy home, a home with abundance of natural lights and a well-circulated fresh air.

The architect designed the zoning plan and layout for this residence in a thoughtful manner. Public areas such as living, kitchen and dining area placed on the ground floor from the right of the entrance, while the more private area such as bedrooms are set on the first floor from the left of the entrance.

The house is inspired by the effectiveness of Japanese architecture, a lot of vertical space has been utilised within the limited size of the site to compensate the space that taken away by the voids. The clever use of materials combination of composite wood materials, monochromatic colours and white walls as the dominating features has created a sense of unity throughout its design. The stairs have a wood handrail with hidden lighting to create a soft ambient lighting for the space.

During the design and construction process, a number of experiments to explore materials and applications technique has been done. What might be appeared as a simple house design turns out to require thoughtful plannings in order to achieve the comfort and quality of the space within the limited budget.