The story of this house starts with a tree. In the garden of this corner plot fronted by two roads, there is a matured, 13-metre-tall Pink Trumpet tree.
The scheme prioritised preserving and making it the protagonist in the architecture, hence special care was given during the construction process to minimise damage to it.
There were other challenges. The owners, who live here with their two children, wanted to maximise the built-up area. The plan reflects these requirements – an L shape that fills to the edges of the plot but retracts around the tree. The swimming pool was elevated to the first level and cantilevered to avoid the tree’s roots and branches. Placed next to the tree, the pool’s clear water is a mirror reflecting foliage.
As the plot’s location is in a flood-prone zone, regulations mandated an exposed basement level and elevated first storey. An entertainment area is placed at the basement, where a picture window to the pool frames activity and enhances natural illumination.
The raised first storey contains the family’s gathering spaces, with the dining and dry kitchen area oriented towards the tree and pool.
On the circulation, long corridors and wasted spaces were minimised, allowing natural light from large picture windows to brighten interiors and lines of site to capitalise on the tree’s majesty.
Nature is encountered throughout, with one poignant orchestration of nature and architecture found in the powder room. Here, users are greeted by the calming presence of a Zen garden outside glass walls. The emptiness of this stone garden was necessary, as a solution to avoid the five-metre building radius around the tree. Circular cut outs in the slab of the cantilevering pool echo the carpet of pebbles arranged like ripples on the ground.
With this tranquil panorama, the powder room becomes more than a functional space; it offers a pause to unwind and reconnect with nature. Water also becomes a leitmotif, encountered in manifold ways throughout the dwelling.
All these elemental encounters are contained in a tactile shell of fair-faced concrete, shaped by varying degrees of enclosure and transparency. On the west-facing elevation facing a busy thoroughfare, perforated aluminium screens provide a shield. On the smaller road facing a low-rise kindergarten, there is more glazing.
The project exemplifies how complex situations can be manipulated into a harmonious architecture that fulfils functional needs while providing delight to familial routines. The narrative of the tree grounds the scheme, and is the driver for the symbiosis of architecture and nature.
