Water-Cooled House - Wallflower Architecture + Design

Hidden away from the road, the site is surrounded by a verdant screen of mature trees from adjacent properties. Breezes blowing transversely across the site being another notable aspect of the location.

The owner had wanted a contemporary home that prioritized environmental coolness as a consistent attribute and to be able to enjoy the luscious tropical surroundings.

The concept developed for the home inverted planning and hierarchical norms common in local residential planning. To fully appreciate the mature and variegated natural environment and stretch the potential for visual depth and distance, the main living room and study were located in a pavilion on the second storey.

It was designed with minimal enclosing and supporting structure so as to maximize the elevated vistas. To unconsciously guide visitors to the living pavilion above, a minimal spiral staircase touches down within the entrance foyer. Hints of the tree-lined views are seen through the large circular void connecting the entrance foyer to the pavilion above.

A dark reflecting pond surrounds the pavilion which assists in refining the experience of serene isolation and privacy and frames. The occasional bird dipping into the pond, rippling the surface further ties the house to the natural surroundings. The purpose of the second storey pond is also designed to thermally insulate the dining, bedrooms and family spaces underneath from solar heat gain. In the same way, the water body above also helps to regulate temperature swings within the house.

n the first storey, the residential and service functions of the house are delineated by a long continuous light and air well that is paralleled below by a similarly long and continuous koi pond. The pathway running along-side the pond that leads to the bedrooms hides the substantial service areas which are beyond the pathway wall. As with the second storey pond, the air well and first storey koi pond is also designed to facilitate in micro-cooling the first storey rooms and spaces. The pathway is a conduit for prevailing breezes; the koi pond’s thirty metre length and two metre width exposes a sixty square metre surface area within the house to those breezes for evaporative cooling.







As a gesture to the prominent role that water plays within the residence, an oculus within the pond highlights the main entrance, the circle of sunlight cooled and animated by the constantly changing sinusoidal patterns of refracted rays through the water above.

Architect: Wallflower Architecture + Design
Location: Bukit Timah, Singapore
Design Team: Cecil Chee, Robin Tan & Sean Zheng
Project Year: 2009
Photographs: Albert Lim

VIA: TECNOHAUS

6 Family House Staldern Regensberg - L3P Architekten

The 6 Family House Staldern Regensberg ZH in Switzerland, is a housing project designed by Swiss architect L3P Architekten. It features the randomized glazing and openings on the facade with its unique panorama view.

"The architectural expression is essentially defined through the location of the property, with its unique panorama view, and the historical reference to the castle town."

L3P Architekten.

The architectural expression is essentially defined through the location of the property, with its unique panorama view, and the historical reference to the castle town. Each of the apartments located on the three floors of the two house sections differ in floor plan, height and proportion. The centre of every apartment is formed through the lounge room, adorned with high ceilings (3.4m) and ceiling to floor windows to the south side.

The interplay between the partly winding, narrow and castle-like private rooms and the open and light-flooded ‘public’ rooms, gives the separate apartments their quality and layout composure.

The consequent use of height offset in the separate apartments allows a layout in both attic apartments which is vertically orientated; the rooms are over each other and are staggered on the mezzanine to the lounge room.

The long, 2m high corner windows and the glazed loggias allow a unique panorama. The interaction with the proportions of the window surfaces, the over-long windows and super-elevated balconies in the centre of both houses fool the eye, the individual apartments are not comprehensible from the outside. The ‘castle’ character of the north façade, with ‘arrow-slit’ like windows, orientates itself on the historical fundamental structure of Regensberg.

Architect: L3P Architekten AG FH SIA
Location: Regensberg, Canton Zurich, Suiza
Completion: Octubre 2008
GFA: 960m2
Team: Frank Schaefer Arch.ETH, Boris Egli Arch.FH, Martin Reusser Arch.FH
Civil: Bona + Fischer AG, Winterthur
Builder: E. Schäfer Bau AG, Dielsdorf
Photographer: Vito Stallone

VIA: TECNOHAUS