Today woke up to a sleepy saturday at 1230. tour was at 1.30pm starting from Neil road, the architours. So after a quick 2 slices cheese toast and coffee that L made, i took off ina taxi.
The 3 places are 368 Orchard road by Raymond Woo architects, Chin house terrace by Laud Architects and Bedok HeartBeat Hub by Ong & Ong. We took off in a 40 seater bus and the student docents gave us the free goodie bag, a cloth one with snacks and we walked over to the first place.
We met at the lobby where the architect himself gave us a description of the place. There was even slides for an introduction on glass being the starting concept, and exploration of it with different structural resolutions. The structure of the massing was lightest at the front, composite of steel & RC in the middle and RC at the back. The final structure was a mix of tree like cables, very fine and thin supporting a curtain of glass with the thinest mruullions ever. The v shape front box was said to increase the facade area and views of the plot. The owner as said in the words of the architect was very rich and was in no hurry to rent out the space. The 6th floor was beautiful, a double volume space with long views extended out to the far edge. No overhead lighting, all from the side, and the glass specialist Hugh Dorett ( spell wrongly?) an englishman also worked partially on the louvre. The marine grade structure of stainless steel had little problem with fire safety. Of 800mm thick, inside was an I column with an overall cladding. The glass had gas between to cut down heat, and the horizontal glass was fritted to reduce the heat gain.
The second house was beautiful. Owner was a couple who only required 2 bedrooms and wanted an entertainment space for 50 people. So the entry was a mezzanine of an open stairway. with a ribbon of a steel stair folding up to the 4th story of attic. Composed calmly with red bricks on the 2 sides; another wall erected next to the RC parti wall, from a width of 7m, width became 6.7m. The palette was black painted steel with generous sprinkling of indonesian teak ( top class european grade with minimal knots) Interior walls used pre-case concrete of 600mmx 75mm with plywood formwork. beautiful effect. The laminate was from EDL, smooth and warm to the touch and apparently healable by ironing on it. The skylight was made of structural steel beams to pass the household bombshelter requirements. An detail explained was the brick selection was chosen to use the other side instead of the good facing side. I spotted the singh brothers who were developers as well. Good carpentary detailing, and even the ceilings were made from the same teak. One nice detail was a beam across so as to be able to accommodate future glass doors to allow for separate partition to be air-con. Beautiful and comfortable.
The last felt the weakest of the lot. Or maybe it was because i was comparing to Kampung Admiralty by Woha which felt alot warmer. This one, had just opened and was mentioned to be simple and bare internally as it would have "community engagement" to paint on them. The first impression of the 1st storey felt underwhelming i have to say. The existing glass doors were black tinted so as not to compete with the existing shops? Strange logic. eastern facade had vertical sun shading and western was more horizontal. As we went up, 4th floor had a swimming pool that was inclusive, which had a ramp going down into the water, and even a separate children play area. 5th floor was the SG gym that had top quality equipment, almost 200sqm, with the latest cross-fit gym even , and it is suppose to have instructors who could tally with a diet or exercise plan as recommended by the polyclinic on the lower floor. The top floor had 6 courts or so of sheltered tennis courts. Another interesting point the A mentioned was that raft foundation was chosen so as to reduce the noise caused to the neighbouring HDB. It was build using a BIM model which the contractors had as well. the facade had quite a bit of green planting which was cast in situ. Somehow overall, the space internally felt a little detached from the exterior though, perhaps it was the proportion? The sunlight didnt penetrate too much somehow. Something odd was that the structurally heavy pool was on the considerably higher floor, and the reason was to reduce the travelling of the elderly upwards. To me i was thinking it was either 1st floor or not much difference between 2nd or 4th no?
Overall i was glad i went for the tour. Made a few friends, a timber seller and a french architect lady who just moved fr kl to sg. Inspiring works all in all.
