ANCIENT SITE ABODE / IRONCLAD RESTRAINT

WORDS

PHOTOGRAPHY

1. House of

Harmony is

RT+Q’s latest exploration of the barn form.

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Having completed 118 residential projects in Southeast Asia and won plenty of awards since its establishment in 2003, it is fair to say that RT+Q Architects has mastered the art of modern tropical houses.

The firm has also developed a distinct design language and an extensive lexicon of details.

“We are continuously refining and tweaking them to suit each unique project,” says RT+Q co-founder Rene Tan.

Refined is an apt word to describe its latest project, House of Harmony.

The two-storey-plus-attic home is RT+Q’s latest exploration of the modernist barn form.

Located on a slope, the site was originally split into two levels. Tan decided to even them out so the house can enjoy a seamless spatial flow.

Sitting 1m above the main street level, the new home paints an elegant proportion in the neighbourhood with its pitched metal roof.

“The clients’ brief requested a very rational and compact house, which translated to straightforward zoning,” says Koh Sock Mui, Associate Architect at RT+Q, who helmed the project.

“The beauty of the house is in the articulation of the details,” she adds.

It has an L-shaped plan and is home to a family of four. The first floor comprises

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2. RT+Q articulates the barn form of the house with metal screens and Burmese teak. /

A generouslysized deck allows the indoor activity to spill outside seamlessly.

living area, dining area, kitchen, the helper’s living quarter and a guest room.

On the second floor, the front wing is dedicated is the parents’ master suite, while the rear is for their two daughters.

“We designed it such that when the time comes, the children’s area can operate as two self-contained suites,” explains Koh.

The third floor is for hobby and leisure. The attic houses a spa-like bathroom and a dance studio for the daughters.

Meanwhile, the entire rear wing hosts a roof garden with a canopied tea parlour that enjoys breezy evenings and a view to the dance studio and neighbourhood beyond.

The material palette comprises three primary elements: granite, marble and Burmese timber.

All three are solid, visually-robust materials that, in the hands of lessexperienced architects, could easily overwhelm the design.

But here, RT+Q skilfully pairs them with the precise ratio of open spaces, floor-toceiling openings, and breathtakingly-thin cantilevered planes to render them just right.

The shade of grey in the house is kept consistent across materials.

The generous deck and swimming pool stretching along the living area can serve as either a connector or separator from the dining area, depending on the occasion.

The spatial framing in the interior was meticulously planned to be pleasingly symmetrical, providing a perfect backdrop for the furniture pieces curated by interior consultant D Editors.

On the façade, metal screens add texture

The porthole cut through the wall is a nod to the moon gate and just one of the many small touches that pay tribute to Asian heritage.

and provide privacy for the inhabitants.

“The screens allow us to visually tie together the attic and the second level,” says Koh.

The attic bathroom, which comes with a steam room, enjoys the view of greenery made even more poetic as it is layered by the metal screen.

The freestanding bathtub serves both as a sculptural centrepiece and a functioning amenity.

Housed within the elbow of the L-shaped plan, the main stairwell enjoys ample natural light streaming in via a skylight.

As the day progresses, sunlight filtering through the screen paints the woodgrain, marble and fairface concrete with shadows.

“Burmese teak has this distinct warmtoned golden hue, and the pieces used for

the house have been meticulously curated for their colour and grain consistency,” shares Koh.

The stairwell area is both Tan and Koh’s favourite part of the design.

“It shows that a utilitarian space can be more than just that – it can be a poetic space with the right amount of light and shadow,” says Tan.

SECOND FLOOR

FLOOR PLANS

GROUND FLOOR

ATTIC

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HOUSE OF HARMONY

Singapore /

2019 /

954m 2 /

738m 2 /

RT+Q Architects / LEAD ARCHITECT

Koh Sock Mui /

TK Quek, Rene Tan, Jes Ang /

D Editors /

Huat Brothers / C&S CONSULTANT

TnJ Consultants / M&E CONSULTANT

HPX Consulting Engineers / QUANTITY SURVEYOR

WS Surveyorship / LIGHTING CONSULTANT

Lighting Technologies / LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT

Ecoplan Asia & Nyee Phoe Flower Garden /

Minotti, Georgetti, Poliform, Cocovara, Hammerton, Focus Wine Cellar /

SANITARYWARE AXOR, Hansgrohe,

Duravit, Grohe

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4. The rooftop tea parlour enjoys a view to the dance studio and neighbourhood.

5. The freestanding bathtub enjoys a sweeping view of the neighbourhood while tucked behind the greenery and metal screen.

3. Natural light streams inside and paints the stairwell with poetic brushstrokes.

Further enhancing the quality of the material is the lighting.

It comprises mostly of recessed and indirect architectural lights that are felt more than seen, adding a glow to the perimeter of the porthole on the ground floor, and tracing the lines of the barn-shaped roof in the attic bathroom.

Here and there are small touches that pay tribute to Asian heritage.

The porthole – a somewhat spontaneous design decision that Tan took during construction – is a nod to the moon gate; so is the pattern of the timbre screen in the dining room.

These details work in tandem to soften the straightforwardness of the architectural shell.

“The early working title of this house was Japanese Armani,” reveals Tan, with an amused smile, sharing that it came from the owners during brainstorming sessions involving many mood boards.

Seeing the home’s final look, one can draw the parallel.

But labelling its tailored elegance and

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poetic discipline as such feels inadequate and oversimplified.

Evidently, the clients felt the same way, for they changed the name of the house when it was completed.

The House of Harmony balances many things with ironclad restraint, and the design shines because of it.