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House Tour: A private oasis with a living tree-filled facade
Singapore-based L Architects won design accolades for the House of Trees project — a bungalow with a tree-front exterior.
By Lynn Tan /
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Photo: Finbarr Fallon, Khoo Guo Jie
L Architects was a big winner of this year’s Singapore Institute of Architects (SIA) Architectural Design Awards, taking home three awards for its two projects: A Brick & Mortar Shop, which won the highest accolade, Design of the Year award, and Design award in the Interior Architecture category; and the House of Trees, which took home Merit Award in the Residential Projects category.
Related: Luxury Homes: What does a Singapore architect’s home look like?
When faced with an undesirable context, the biggest challenge for L Architects founder Lim Shing Hui was how to bring that spirit of respite, liveability and tranquillity into the house.
Her take was to focus on “a design strategy that could better respond to the undesirable surroundings rather than create a hermetic shell”.
Trees and plants thrive with abundant rain and sunlight in the tropics.
They also provide excellent shields from the eastern and western sun, while offering pleasant views.
This rationale prompted her to use nature as a building material to form a porous, living facade.
This re-contextualising of the urban surroundings through the use of deep, occupiable, lush landscaped balconies was what the jury appreciated.
This article was originally published in Home & Decor.
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