Olive House

The site sits on the big flat land at the corner of Astrid Hill Road, surrounded by lot of mature trees. As the road is sloping down from one end to the other, the road level at the lowest end is about one storey lower than the existing platform level. From the clients brief, the big car park and MEP rooms for big swimming pool and big koi pond are required. In order to maintain the existing platform level and greenery as much as possible, we use the advantage of the sloping Astrid Hill Road by relocating the new entrance to the lowest side of the road. The new entrance leads to the exposed basement whereby natural light and ventilation play the important role in creating a welcoming arriving experience. The carpark and MEP rooms are tucked away behind. In order to fulfill the brief from a nature-loving client, the house is oriented into a u-shape layout. A big koi pond in the centre courtyard is used as a focal point of the house. And this together with the large roof overhangs and open spaces allows the owner to live comfortably in Singapore’s tropical climate. Concrete was only used where necessary for basements and floor slabs. Steel with its lighter carbon footprint was used for columns above ground and roof structure. The timber cladding on second storey is used to differentiate from the heavy concrete look on first storey. The aluminium roof was also heavily insulated to reduce solar gain before being topped off with a large array of photovoltaic cells.