Kampung House

Kampung House is a sectionally driven house that sets itself as an example of tropical living without the need for mechanical ventilation, enjoying both light and air through natural cross ventilation. In rethinking sustainability in land-scarce Singapore, it creates a unique response to the typology of modern housing in Singapore. The design reconsiders optimizing spaces rather than maximizing it. It combines the best lessons of the kampung house, and of the villa savoye, both of which are reminiscent of the best renaissance palazzi traditions of the piano nobile. One wonders in the end whether there is any intrinsic difference, for instance between the elevated vernacular kampung dwelling and the modernist house on pilotis--or that across the ages and artistic styles man's desire for comfort has remained fundamentally the same. ISSUE OF SPACE The main challenge of the project lends itself to free up ground and garden space in land scarce Singapore. In an act of counter-intuition, we minimized the percentage of footprint on the first storey, maximum landscaping, whilst putting the living spaces above. A ramp interconnects the floors, going into the great double height external space, liberating the section. CHALLENGE OF ENVIRONMENT The site’s orientation meant that it faces the harsh afternoon sun, hence we took that as an opportunity to use passive sun-shading devices in lieu of mechanically drive entrapments. Coupled with the free section throughout the house, air flows naturally from the freed-up ground all the way to the attic. IMPACT AND OUTCOME The outcome was a house that proved to not only have understood its context, but through craftsmanship paved a way for a new typology of housing in Singapore that is unrivalled, pushing boundaries of what is possible in the industry.