Family First

Built with considerations for present and future needs, this family home is as comfortable as it is comforting

- Yvonne Xu

Prakash Raja, a corporate lawyer and his wife Sharline Suhumaran, a developmental pediatrician, wanted a private sanctuary that could offer them respite from their busy lives. “My ideal home is a space that’s safe, familiar, beautiful and comfortable,” says Sharline. For her husband, home is a place he comes back to unwind, and to spend quality time with his wife and their two young children every day. “It is a place that the kids will enjoy growing up in for at least the next 10 to 15 years,” he says.

The couple entrusted the design of their home to their friend Luther Seet, an architect and partner at Singapore-based practice AL+ and a co-founder of London-based studio Innully. He took the creative freedom he was given and enthusiastically drafted some 80 drawings for the house, a quantity greater than what is usually done for residential projects of this size.

TAILORED TO FIT

The house in question is an inter-terrace unit that was Prakash’s family abode. The decision was to tear down the old building and construct a new house. Design planning took a long-term view of creating a supportive multigeneration family home that is nurturing for children and in which the grandparents might come to stay comfortably. Considerations were therefore practical and honest—such as opting for tiles in the children’s rooms and living areas where a bit of rough and tumble is expected and designing a staircase wide enough to accommodate a stairlift in the future.