It's Her House

RT+Q Architects’ House with Bridges in Singapore is chockfull of delightful surprises, quirky spaces, and winsome charm—and therein lies the harm

- Judith Arellano Torres

What do you do with a client who is successful, creative, unconventional, and not particularly concerned with being practical? Why, you thank your stars, give her what she wants, and indulge a little. You might even win an award to add to your growing collection in the office. RT+Q did.

The Singapore Institute of Architects cited the House with Bridges for its “remarkable creativity” in engaging with the site and overcoming its restrictions. The odd-shaped, five-sided 665-square-meter lot was indeed restrictive. A steep, 14-meter-high slope on the north and west sides ate up a third of the property. When the owner first saw it, the slope had already been encased in a concrete retaining wall. Cutting into the slope, building on the slope, or even just resting a portion of the house on the slope were out of the question, said the authorities. Unfazed by the significant reduction in buildable area, the plant-loving owner imagined how pretty the terraced hillside would be when filled with foliage. She especially liked that several shade trees loomed over her property some 20 meters overhead.

And so RT+Q’s project team, led by Singapore-born Koh Kai Li, with Malaysian principal Rene Tan and Filipino architect Charles Wee, conceived of a house of cantilevers. Each ascending level would jut out in increasing floor length over the gradient. The basement, planted squarely at street level, occupies 92 square meters; the first storey, 168; the second, 198; and the attic, 133. Two cantilevered platforms—or ‘bridges,’ as Li conceived them—reach out like open arms towards the slope, allowing family members to, well, contemplate the slope and its greenery up close. The pièce de résistance is the client’s ‘glass house,’ which cantilevers five meters from the attic.