A fortified concrete mass stands tall, shielding all behind it from the racket of the busy expressway nearby. Behind the bulwark, a cozy, intimate communal space emerges, perforated by a central skylight, while the private dwellings of the house’s nine inhabitants lay adjacent to it. This was Formwerkz Architect’s solution to a client who wanted to house a family of seven (and two helpers), and needed somewhere to seek respite from the world – and the expressway – directly outside.

The client is extremely sensitive to sound due to the nature of his job as an otolaryngologist – a doctor who specialises in diseases of the ear, nose and throat. Thus, because the house was situated beside a highway, it was cardinal that its design helped to mitigate, if not nullify the bustle of the outdoors.

Standing at 5,000 sq ft, the house was built for a multi-generational family of nine – two grandparents, the client and his wife, three children and two helpers.

Material-wise, the house primarily utilises rough, board-formed concrete and marine plywood, which in turn is complemented by touches of galvanised steel and brass. Nature and greenery finds its away into the house’s design, making it an oasis of serenity set in the backdrop of a bustling city.

The materials are specifically chosen to encapsulate time, embracing and retaining all of life’s traces through the ages. Both Formwerkz and their client agreed that beauty is best told by the stories within, and thus embarked on a project which employed materials that could embody the same spirit.

The result is a timeless, stylishly designed abode that challenges the conventions of modernism in new-age architecture and design – a tranquil, undisturbed grotto of sorts, that promotes and protects rest amid one of the busiest and fastest-moving economies in Southeast Asia.