The Apartment House

BRIEF The brief called for a design that can accommodate a long list of desires and the flexibility for change and expansion for a multi-generational household. While there is the need to meet each nuclei family’s privacy, this particular typology necessitates a more in-depth consideration to the values of staying together beyond the convenience of sharing common amenities and resources. The project brought us to engage the very traditional Asian Concept of Multi-generation Living in our modern aging society and to address the differences in habits, desires, taste or even the potential tensions between individuals or sub-families. STRATEGY The complexity inherent in the brief demands a simple framework to accommodate the myriads of desires and functions. The house is organized in two linear volumes, split by a lap pool in the middle but connected on the upper floors by the family space. The 2-storey volume houses the parents’ master en-suite while the 3–storey volume houses the 3 siblings’ highly individualized abodes. The swimming pool, occupying the central courtyard space between the two blocks, simultaneously creates a sense of physical detachment as while as unity in use as everyone in the family loves to swim. Internally, the spaces are organized to be easily re-configurable as the service spaces and circulation are arranged neatly to one side. This allows most of the room to have high ceiling spaces (to the slab) without the need for false ceiling. Most interior fixtures were designed to be easily de-mountable and replaceable, in line with our brief that houses should be designed with certain robustness for change.