 |
 OFFICE
GALLERY
STUDIO
|
 PROJECT
REVIEWS  APPROACH SERVICES |
 |
 |
|
| : 158 EMERALD HILL ROAD in review |
|
| Openly Intimate The one thing that Yip Yuen Hong of HYLA detests is to 'sound arty farty and pretentious'. He prefers to keep it simple as he tries to 'find the right words to use' in talking about one of his four-year-old firm's numerous residential projects, the reconstruction of a Peranakan house at 158 Emerald Hill. But even as he elaborates on the changes that were made to the original house in this A & A job, an odd lyrical phrase or two such as the 'soul of a space' slips in as easily as refreshing calamansi down a parched throat. Some concepts can only, after all, be conveyed through higher expressions. Words can only do so much if limited to just the dry and static. The long narrow spaces in these conservation dwellings have been tackled in a variety of ways by different architects. Emerald Hill Road itself is lined with many prime examples which have been documented by the glossy-print media and which have propelled their designers to local renown. Yip, too, sees 'exciting opportunities' in the typical narrowness and length of houses of this that 'offer a lot of privacy for urban living'. "They are immense', he says of the possible ways to reconfigure the tall vertical space that is the very 'soul' of the house. In this project, he wanted ' to achieve intimate living spaces without the claustrophobia. The point is, how do you build something and still keep the spirit of the space?' What Yip and his team at HYLA have done here, guided by a general brief that listed in its many requirements 'partial to water element and open to sky', is a dual achievement: transparency and privacy. The latter was perhaps made easy by the inherent length of the house and setback frontage, two characteristics which naturally shelter the internal living spaces from nosy neighbours. And yet, the transparency? Simple. Take down a couple of walls downstairs, open up the back, cut in ceiling skylights and introduce a lightwell. On the first level the house is open through from front to back. Walls previously separating the dining and living are no more; these spaces now flow in an apparently seamless stretch. The breezy open kitchen, well-equipped and outfitted in stainless steel, now occupies a proportionately sizeable area (see floor plans). It is on the same raised floor as the dining. This floor has been raised all the way to the back wall of the house to take in a small family corner. In raising this floor level, a 'basement' is created to accommodate a guest bedroom, a maid's room and storage, as well as the utility and laundry areas. Demarcating the different functions of the first floor are vertical elements in lightly structured forms: a partial wall separates the living from the dining. Incidentally, this wall also provides a visually framing element - one gets a vista view of the house looking through it: a timber screen discreetly partitions off the staircase; slender folding louvre doors ensure that the kitchen can be closed off from the dining if the necessity arises. |
The alterations, in general, added an attic and extended
the floor areas of the two main levels right up to the previous setback
limit of the house from the boundary (URA has since changed its ruling
to allow the site to be fully developed right up to the boundary). The spaces are noticeably tight - a consequence of having to draw so many rooms into a relatively small house. Yip plays their smallness to effect by making the spaces ' intimate' yet allowing the desired overall openness. New spaces are added as 'simple insertions that will not interfere with the main spaces. In most of our designs, we try to satisfy the functional aspects of living but still create interesting spaces'. On the second level, a major addition is an 'insertion' containing the ensuite bath and a walk-in wardrobe-and-dressing for the master bedroom and a relocated bathroom for the second bedroom tucked away at the back (see floor plans.) This bedroom is in fact the vertical extension of the family room below. Through the introduction of a small narrow 'separation' between this added back block and the 'insertion', a lightwell is thus opened up. Enjoying the most in terms of floor space taken up is clearly the master bedroom on the second level. This space might have turned out better without the huge blocked-up attic above pushing into more than half its original ceiling height, resulting in an L-shaped height that appears unresolved. It might have turned out nicer, for want of a better word, if the attic is not blocked up and is used as part of the master zone. The blocking up, however, was necessary as this room is meant to double as a guest bedroom occasionally. The forecourt is most pleasantly treated, according to the clients' brief, 'for human usage instead of car'. Stone paving, ponds, timber bridge and lush plantings turned out a cool, shady entrance to the house. Detailing and finishes overall can be summed up quite adequately with words from the client's brief: 'Earthy, textured, modern, practical, lively coloured, and woody.' The staircase, a wonderfully economical and effective piece of design, seems to emphasis craft and construction. Essentially more 'subtle' than they are substantial, changes were deliberately kept 'simple but we put in a lot of thought,' says Yip. "Our usual approach to design is to pare down to the barest minimum to achieve maximum effect. We don't do exciting spaces just for the sake of it.' Even if he wants to 'do something beautiful and sophisticated, cost often forbids it. We have to bear in mind also the level of sophistication of the contractor' - or the lack of it, which 'does pose a limitation to a certain extent, but we use it as a "given" to work with, and come up with something interesting still.' |
Reprinted with permission from: ID Vol.16 no.1 Feb/Mar 98 Writer: Thio Lay Hoon Photography: C I & A |
|
| View Flash Version (Macromedia Flash Player required) | Download Flash Player | back to top |
 |