Inner Haven offers a contextually responsive approach to contemporary tropical residential design. Sited off a cul-de-sac on an irregular 631-square-meter plot with a narrow frontage and tightly spaced neighbours, the house turns inward—placing a central courtyard at the heart of both its spatial organization and climatic strategy.
The residence is composed of three distinct blocks that frame the courtyard, distributing functions vertically across three levels. The ground floor accommodates public and service areas; the second-floor houses private bedrooms and a study; while the attic level contains entertainment spaces, mechanical services, and a panoramic outdoor terrace. Vertical circulation is anchored within the courtyard via a stair and lift core, reinforcing its role as the literal and symbolic centre of the home.
Crucially, the courtyard is not merely a spatial device but a climatic one. Sheltered by a glass roof and timber pergola, it allows for year-round use, bringing light, air, and greenery deep into the interior. This rain-protected, naturally ventilated core dissolves the boundary between inside and out, removing the need for separating walls or doors. Sliding pocket doors and operable windows offer additional climate control, balancing openness with environmental responsiveness.
The material palette is minimal yet tactile—raw concrete and natural timber—allowing the landscaping to visually anchor the space. The courtyard is lush, tranquil, and atmospheric, offering an experience that is both intimate and expansive.
Drawing on the courtyard traditions of Roman atriums, Chinese siheyuan, and Southeast Asian dwellings, Inner Haven reinterprets this time-honored typology for a dense, tropical urban context. It is a refined and thoughtful example of how inward-facing design can foster privacy, comfort, and spatial richness—an urban oasis grounded in climate, culture, and context.

Name: Inner Haven
Type: 2 storey detached house with basement, attic and swimming pool
Location: Siglap Bank, Singapore
Site Area: 631 m2
Gross Floor Area: 561 m2
Status: Completed 2022
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Trang, Kimberly Ooi, Carol Huang, Thomas Ong
Main Contractor: : Emma Groups Construction Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: Green Forest Landscape Pte Ltd
Interior: Plank Workshop Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Heaven & Earth House is a thoughtfully designed residence for a senior couple, integrating Feng Shui principles with a serene natural setting that faces a neighbourhood park. The architecture promotes harmony and balance, with multi-level courtyards at each end of the house that draw greenery upward—symbolizing a connection between earth and sky. These vertical courtyards not only provide visual continuity with nature but also encourage natural light, airflow, and interaction from the surrounding rooms, enriching the spatial experience.
Privacy is carefully maintained despite the park-facing orientation. A refined interplay of walls, aluminium screens, and pergolas allows the home to feel open yet protected. This spatial strategy fosters a sense of seclusion while maintaining a strong connection with the surrounding landscape and neighbourhood context.
The use of vernacular materials and traditional detailing pays homage to the aesthetic of the Chinese courtyard house. Weathered brick, timber, and stone surfaces create a textured, grounded atmosphere that complements the couple’s extensive collection of cultural and religious antiques, accumulated over five decades. These objects are displayed throughout the home in alcoves and niches that feel both curated and lived-in.
While deeply rooted in tradition, the home is designed with contemporary functionality in mind—accommodating aging-in-place needs through intuitive circulation, accessible layouts, and integrated outdoor living areas. Each space is designed for ease of use without compromising its architectural integrity or symbolic meaning.
Heaven & Earth House is more than a residence; it is a sanctuary that reflects the lives, beliefs, and memories of its occupants. By balancing traditional values with modern living, the home creates a setting that is not only culturally resonant but also timeless in its expression of harmony between people, place, and the natural world.

Name: Heaven & Earth House
Type: 2 storey detached house with mezzanine, attic and swimming pool
Location: Jalan Novena, Singapore
Site Area: 598.7 m2
Gross Floor Area: 673.4m2
Status: Completed 2024
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Han Loke Kwang, Nicholas Gomes
Assistant Architects: Wesley Fong, Carol Huang, Thomas Ong
Main Contractor: : QS Builders Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: This Humid House Pte Ltd
Interior: Hiap Chuan Wood Industries Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

The house sits on a typical landed housing plot with an oncoming road directly facing the front and this becomes a privacy issue. To address this, a vertical court is inserted between the house and its adjoining neighbour. All the main spaces of the house look into this courtyard. At the ground level there are two pools, a koi pond under the covered skylit trellis extending into a swimming pool outside. The double volume living and dining rooms open to this court, with correspondingly tall sliding and folding glass doors that can open fully. The courtyard is covered at the top with a glass roof and an intricate pattern of anodised aluminum trellis. This creates a perfect environment for the house – sheltered from the rain, screened from the sun, hidden from the public and well ventilated through the large opening in front. It is a veritable oasis for the family and their guests.

This typology redefines how a typical landed house in Singapore can relate to the environment. It enables a space that can be fully opened up yet remain private, sheltered and comfortable. The house still has the usual assortment of (6) rooms and sits on a plot size of 445m2 so it is a very typical house with regard to its requirements. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines oasis as “something that provides refuge, relief, or pleasant contrast”. We think a house in Singapore can be all three, especially in this era of uncertainty and trouble.

Name: Vertical Oasis
Type: 2 storey semi-detached house with attic, mezzanine and swimming pool
Location: Ripley Crescent, Singapore
Site Area: 446 m2
Gross Floor Area: 673 m2
Status: Completed 2022
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Mr Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Tran Thi Thu Trang, Nicholas Teoh, Thomas Ong
Main Contractor: : Emma Groups Construction Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: ASE Consultants
Landscape: Green Forest Landscape Pte Ltd
Interior: Graceful Décor Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Facing a high-rise condominium across a narrow street, Gabled Gardens responds to the pressing issue of urban privacy with a bold yet refined architectural gesture. Conceived as a series of terraced gardens enclosed within a sculptural gabled shell, the house presents a veiled frontage—layered with greenery and timber screens—that shields its inner world while offering glimpses of life within.
The gabled roof, iconic and elemental, frames the home like a protective envelope. Within it, cascading terraces form lush green pockets across each level, blurring the line between architecture and landscape. These verdant platforms do more than delight the senses—they serve as strategic buffers, screening views from the neighbouring condominium while enhancing natural ventilation and light.
At the heart of the home lies a soaring double-volume space that unites the living, dining, and family zones. Entirely glazed, this spatial core opens out onto a tranquil swimming pool that flows visually—and physically—into the footprint of the house. The pool acts as a reflective spine, extending the interior outward while drawing the landscape inward.
‘Gabled Gardens’ is a study in layered transparency: a private world that reveals itself slowly, screened and softened by terraces of green. It is architecture as retreat—anchored in form, animated by nature, and always in quiet dialogue with its dense urban context.

Name: Gabled Gardens
Type: New Erection of a 2-Storey Envelope Control Detached Dwelling House with Mezzanine, Attic & Swimming Pool
Location: Tan Kim Cheng Road, Singapore
Site Area: 547.5 m2
Gross Floor Area: 610.6 m2
Status: Completed 2024
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Mr Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Nicholas Gomes, Aaron Lau
Main Contractor: : CTH Builder Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: Thymn Pte Ltd
Landscape: Green Forest Landscape Pte Ltd
Interior: Hiap Chuan Wood Industrties Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Set on an elongated 9 by 38.5-metre plot, Hanging Gardens is a semi-detached house that confronts the complexities of dense city living. With a condominium directly in front, a church along one side, and 24-hour eateries at the rear, the site is pressed on all edges by activity. Rather than engage outwardly, the design turns inward, cultivating a world of calm centred on a lush front courtyard.

This courtyard is conceived as a cascading garden, where layers of greenery provide distance from the surrounding urban density. Enveloped in a finely detailed filigree screen, the space is protected from the looming condominium opposite while allowing filtered daylight to pour in. The result is a dappled, semi-shaded environment in which tall Ficus Alii flourish, evoking the tranquil character of a forest under-canopy.

The courtyard extends beyond the visual, forming the very heart of family life. It is where daily rituals unfold — a shared space for interaction, reflection, and repose. By positioning nature at its core, the house transforms a difficult site into a restorative sanctuary.

Hanging Gardens demonstrates how architecture can reconcile the pressures of the city with the human need for retreat, offering a serene, inward-looking haven of light, landscape, and life.

Name: Hanging Gardens
Type: 3 storey semi-detached house with attic, mezzanine and swimming pool
Location: Valley Road, Singapore
Site Area: 354.6 m2
Gross Floor Area: 628.3 m2
Status: Completed 2024
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Han Loke Kwang, Nicholas Gomes
Assistant Architects: Wesley Fong
Main Contractor: : iBuilders Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: Nyee Phoe Flower Garden Pte Ltd
Interior: KCF&R Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Lines and Curves: Conceived as a new home for an extended family, Lines and Curves transforms a former semi-detached house into a detached residence that balances openness with privacy.
The house faces a large open public carpark shaded by mature trees, and the architecture carefully choreographs views and screens. The massing is composed of crisp rectilinear volumes, softened by a series of curved planters that overhang the swimming pool and lush gardens. An aluminum-screened box projects from the composition, housing two private studies with filtered views.
Arrival is marked by a courtyard before the car porch, shielding the living areas from direct views. The entry sequence leads dramatically into a four-level stair volume, where an off-form concrete screen—its alternating rhythm echoing the stair treads—becomes both backdrop and sculptural centerpiece.
At the heart of the house, an open-plan living and dining space unfolds beneath a timber ceiling, visually extended by the curved swimming pool and greenery. The relationship between inside and outside is enriched through the layering of curved planters above, weaving nature into the family’s daily life.
Above, the off-form concrete screen continues, transforming at the attic level into a pergola that shades a large entertainment room. Here, sliding doors open onto an expansive outdoor terrace—an elevated garden for gatherings, breezes, and distant views.
Lines and Curves is an architecture of contrast and complement: the linear discipline of structure and form is balanced by curvilinear gestures of landscape and water, together creating a home that is both grand and intimate, sculptural and warm.

Name: Lines & Curves
Type: 3 storey detached house with attic and swimming pool
Location: Siglap Garden, Singapore
Site Area: 532 m2
Gross Floor Area: 667 m2
Status: Completed 204
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Jacelyn Pau, Carol Huang
Main Contractor: : HG Development Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: Nyee Phoe Flower Garden Pte Ltd
Interior: Urbanomic Space
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Gardens of Sinai is a sensitive new-build sited on a hillside and oriented toward an elevated park. Designed for a family of three who have lived on the property since 1986, the project reimagines the typical semi-detached house with an architectural language that quietly evokes the idea of ascent—an allusion to its namesake, Mount Sinai.

The original 1980s dwelling was defined by small windows and a compartmentalised layout, restricting light, views, and connection to its verdant surroundings. The new design embraces the sloping terrain and expansive park frontage through a clear spatial strategy: to establish a layered living environment that restores continuity between interior and landscape.

This is articulated through a sequence of stacked, double-volume spaces—including the Living, Dining, Parent’s Family Room, and Son’s Family Room—each carefully positioned to frame internal vistas and outward park views. Together, they form a dynamic sectional experience, rising progressively toward the greenery beyond.

Along the party wall, four stepped courtyards are paired with key living spaces. Rooted in the clients’ passion for planting, these gardens admit daylight, draw breezes, and provide contemplative retreats, serving as both environmental moderators and intimate sanctuaries.

Bound on three sides by suburban neighbours, the house turns inward to its courtyards while maintaining a generous relationship with the park. Grounded in site, memory, and daily ritual, Gardens of Sinai becomes a garden-centric sanctuary shaped by light, topography, and quiet ascent.

Name: Gardens of Eden
Type: 3 storey semi-detached house with attic, mezzanine and swimming pool
Location: Mount Sinai Avenue, Singapore
Site Area: 360 m2
Gross Floor Area: 628.6 m2
Status: Completed 2024
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Mr Han Loke Kwang, Nicholas Gomes
Assistant Architects: Aaron Lau
Main Contractor: : Praxis Contractors Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: MSE Consultants Pte Ltd
Landscape: Greenforest Landscape Pte Ltd
Interior: Graceful Décor Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Set on a 410 m² corner site, Zen Layers is a five-level semi-detached residence, including a basement, that reinterprets urban living through quiet restraint and layered spaces. Its minimalist façade is composed of tiered roof planes and garden terraces, veiled by vertical aluminum screens that both shield and filter light. The composition creates a subtle interplay of solid and void, opacity and transparency.
At the heart of the house, a soaring double-volume living and dining space is clad in warm oak, carrying a wabi-sabi sensibility that emphasizes natural textures and timeless simplicity. A two-storey courtyard anchors this core, drawing daylight and greenery deep into the interior while becoming the emotional focus of the home.
Circulation is conceived as a sequence of elevated journeys. Open walkways, reminiscent of a garden pavilion, link the private rooms upstairs—master suite, children’s bedrooms, study, and gym—while remaining visually connected to the courtyard and terraces below. These interwoven paths create a sense of openness and fluidity, blending movement with contemplation.
Zen Layers thus becomes more than a house: it is a layered sanctuary of light, landscape, and repose—an urban retreat that balances privacy with openness, structure with softness, and architecture with nature.

Name: Zen Layers
Type: 2-Storey Envelope Control Semi-detached Dwelling House with Basement, Mezzanine & Attic
Location: Namly Drive, Singapore
Site Area: 410.6 m2
Gross Floor Area: 765.2 m2
Status: Completed 2024
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Wesley Fong, Carol Huang
Main Contractor: : Sage Builders Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: This Humid House Pte Ltd
Interior: KCF&R Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Every site has its good and bad aspects. And every architect tries to design the building to take advantage of the good things whilst at the same time shielding it from the bad. This house is no exception. On the front the house faces west and a hard streetscape. The side and rear is built up with neighbouring houses close and densely built-up. Fortunately the south boundary of the house faces an adjoining road and a large open field and this is the ‘good’ side. And the design of this house is perhaps the clearest expression of the dichotomy between the good and bad.

A concrete shell wraps around the structure of the house, following the trapezoidal shape of the house which narrows from front to back. All the 3 ‘bad’ sides are relatively solid, shielding the house from the western side and neighbours. On the ‘good’ side, the house is completely open, offering views to the open space. The house is also perforated at the top with a slanting concrete screen, offering shade to the glass façade and at the same time revealing greenery thrusting through the perforations.

A counterpoint to this precise geometry of the concrete shell and screen, are a series of curvilinear terraces. They start as the roof of the carporch, and sinuously curve its way to the side. Other terraces at different levels take on the theme, to create a lush outdoor green space overhanding the pool and outdoor terraces. At the entrance, a bonsai tree sits amidst a water feature, surprising the visitor behind the concrete wall.

Name: Concrete Yin Yang
Type: 2 storey detached house with basement, attic and swimming pool
Location: Jalan Langgar Bedok, Singapore
Site Area: 478 m2
Gross Floor Area: 527 m2
Status: Completed 2022
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Tiffany Ow, Jacelyn Pau, Thomas Ong
Main Contractor: : Emma Groups Construction Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: Nyee Phoe Flower Garden Pte Ltd
Interior: Graceful Décor Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell

Set against the harsh conditions of a very busy road, with a condominium looming behind and at the side, Sanctuary Shell is conceived as both refuge and retreat. The house is enveloped by a monolithic concrete shell, its surface stained dark like burnt timber, giving it a quiet strength and resilience amidst the noise and bustle of its context.

Every room in the house opens onto a landscaped terrace suspended between interior and shell. These terraces are staggered between the shell and the house, overhanging the pool below. They create layered gardens that buffer against the busy road, filter views, soften sound, and ensure privacy. More than passive green edges, the terraces act as a shared semi-public zone where family members can see and communicate with one another across levels, transforming thresholds into spaces of connection.

The terraces cascade down toward the lap pool, where water, landscape, and architecture merge into a tranquil sequence. At the heart of the home, a soaring double-volume living and dining space anchors family life. This light-filled interior opens directly to the swimming pool, blurring the line between indoors and out, while the overhanging terraces above provide shade and intimacy.

The front elevation is defined by a finely detailed timber screen, shielding the interior from the public street while allowing light and ventilation. Behind it, the stained concrete shell and terraced gardens combine to form a layered sanctuary — an architecture of protection, retreat, and repose in the midst of an urban landscape.

Name: Sanctuary Shell
Type: 3 storey semi-detached house with attic, mezzanine and swimming pool
Location: Joo Chiat Place, Singapore
Site Area: 365.9 m2
Gross Floor Area: 719.7 m2
Status: Completed 2022
Architect: HYLA Architects
Principal Architect: Mr Han Loke Kwang
Assistant Architects: Tiffany Ow, Coco Goh
Main Contractor: : Praxis Contractors Pte Ltd
Structural Engineer: GCE Consulting Engineers
Landscape: Nyee Phoe Flower Garden Pte Ltd
Interior: Graceful Décor Pte Ltd
Photographer: Derek Swalwell