House of Cycles

House of Cycles is the house for a hobbyist & his family, where his eclectic collections of bicycles, fish, toys and statuettes becomes the central thesis behind the design. The architecture of the house aims not only to showcase his interests, but embody his fun-loving nature, itself becoming a curio with interesting and unexpected moments. The house consists of stacked volumes in a toybox-like fashion, staggered to liberate surfaces for tropical interventions. Facing perennial heat and humidity in tropical Singapore, the alternating protrusions and recesses naturally creates overhangs for shade and intermediate roofs for planters. The layering of full-height windows with exterior screens provides filters the harsh sun while casting interesting shadows that evolve through the day. Furthermore, the cantilevering forms allows for “monsoon windows” on floors that open into the exterior, allowing for ventilation even during heavy storms, while affording views to the lush greenery and inviting waters below. The interior cabinetry designs were a marriage of the practical and playful, incorporating details that elevate storage beyond the mundane. The double height display shelf in the living room was envisioned as a gallery-like space, a backdrop for items which can evolve and change over time. The sculptural spiral stair and bridge serves not only as functional access, but also becomes a beautiful artifact in itself. Furthermore, openings on walls, floors and interior screens create moments of spatial interaction and encounters. Sliding panels in the kitchen and bedroom allows for rooms to be hidden or unhidden as needed, eschewing fixed programmes for versatility in the architecture. These gestures invoke a mischievous ambiguity between spaces, allowing for discovery and rediscovery of the house. The difficult site also challenged typical conceptions of architecture, necessitating a landscape-centric perspective that saw the architecture as subservient to its surroundings. The limited daylight and ventilation of the long and narrow site was circumvented via the inclusion of a courtyard, allowing for cross-ventilation and natural lighting into the interior, while creating vistas to the outdoors. The steep terrain at the rear became vertical terraces, creating a green backdrop for the upper storeys. Capitalizing on the challenges posed by the site hence created opportunities to experiment with the inversion of roles between the building and its surroundings, creating a house within a garden, rather than a house with a garden.