Designing Living Space: Balancing function and aesthetics

In the course of Ti’s 33 years of architectural practice thus far, he has undertaken over 50 residential projects. In this article, we take a look at a small selection of his residential designs in Singapore.

The residential development is a challenging typology for architects to design, in part because the home is one of the most important purchases a person will make in his lifetime; designers constantly face the challenge of designing living spaces that celebrate the aspired lifestyle of the residents while allowing for personalisation and flexibility. Emphasis is placed not just on the individual home unit, but also the composition of the surrounding landscape and amenities.

In designing residential developments, Ti and his team have sought to craft living spaces that are at once luxurious, practical and flexible. From a larger perspective, site orientation and view angles are carefully considered; while on the micro level, no detail in unit layout is overlooked. The variety of unit layouts caters to different market demands and society trends, while giving prospective owners a chance to create unique lifestyle experiences.

Formerly known as La Mansion, Hills Apartment is located in the highly sought-after Bukit Timah area. Extensively retrofitted, the original six-storey building has been transformed into a thoroughly modern apartment block with ten luxurious units. This boutique ensemble is characterised by the introduction of horizontal and vertical cantilevers to provide additional floor area for each apartment, and the use of thin aluminium louvres to improve sun-shading and maintain privacy.

Only two units per floor share a common lift lobby. Designed for extended families, each apartment is about 300sqm in area and includes four bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. The use of full-height glazing with glass spandrels ensures bright and cheerful interiors. The apartments are located from the second storey upwards, which enable a generous main entrance and foyer to be carved out at ground level.

To further enhance the rhythm created by planter boxes and random fenestrations, vertical reinforced concrete fins joining horizontal ledges provide visual continuity and legibility to the development’s façade. The addition of vertical and horizontal fins to all floors eventually distinguishes Hills Apartment, becoming the prime articulating element of the façade.

Completed in 2009, Pavilion 11 consists of two elegant towers that stand proudly on a gentle sloping site in a staggered arrangement for optimum solar orientation and full capitalisation on the magnificent views towards Orchard Road, the Central Business District and the nearby nature reserve. The design ensures all units face southwards, with neither blocks overlapping each other, to achieve optimal views.

The concept in the spatial design of the units is that of ‘pavilion lifestyle’. Living rooms are deftly nudged slightly out of alignment, resulting in 270-degree, unobstructed, extraneous views from the living area balconies. Creative positioning of dedicated lifts allows access to units via the living rooms, and the flowing seamless space creates an expansive view beyond the balcony.

Among the tallest condominiums in Singapore, Sky@eleven was completed in 2010 and is sited along Singapore’s MacRitchie Reservoir, not far from the city’s downtown. The 43-storey towers are arranged along a slight arc with reference to these regional focal points, with apartments organised linearly to achieve a shallow plan depth that permits effective cross-ventilation and ample sunlight to reach into the apartments. The tower orientation also allows each unit to enjoy both views, of the city to the south and MacRitchie Reservoir to the north. 

A community space in the shape of an elliptical pod becomes the formal focal point and programmatic centre of activity, serving also as a connective node to link towers into pairs. The two pods are implemented at the midpoint of each elevation, adjacent to sky terraces, and host the gym and observation deck.

Each apartment has extensive balconies which act as sun-shading. Exclusivity is reflected in the planning of the typical vertical circulation core, where just two or three apartments share a common lift lobby. By strategically stretching the unit layout, and situating the entrance to open to the family space, long narrow corridors leading to bedrooms are avoided while enabling all bedrooms and living spaces to have unobstructed views. Such a layout is conducive to family life as it brings family members past common living areas before entering the individual space.

On the other side of the scale spectrum, The Minton, completed in 2013, comprises ten 15-storey and eight 17-storey apartment blocks, with a total of 1,145 units including 24 units of penthouses. The design takes full advantage of the site topography in the use of open spaces and landscaping to create distinctively different experiences, facilitated by bridges and sky terraces connecting the blocks.

Unlike older developments, The Minton provides not just the basic amenities but a much wider range that is set attractively within a cleverly designed landscape. Beyond the amenities commonly found in condominiums, The Minton has dedicated rooms for activities like yoga, billiard, table soccer, karaoke, piano and table-tennis. Further commercial facilities are housed in the clubhouse’s annex building, including childcare and retail facilities. Other recreational and sports facilities, including pools, Hydro-Massage pavilions and ‘onsen’ spas, are strategically placed around the entire development. This extensive provision is made possible by the critical mass of households in this large estate.  

One of Ti’s latest projects, Paterson Collection is a freehold development consisting of two 19-storey towers with close proximity to the Orchard Road shopping belt, and is targeted to complete in the third quarter of 2014.

The 85-unit development is made up of two or three-bedroom, single-level and duplex penthouses. All units enjoy magnificent views as they feature full-height glass openings. Fixed aluminium screens that are set away from the glass walls and arranged in a playful pattern ensure privacy for residents. Rhythmically placed around the whole façade, these screens add another dimension of material layering that changes the quality of light with the sun movement throughout the day.

Reflecting and fulfilling the lifestyle needs of the residents, two levels of amenities are located within the landscaped deck. The sky terrace also allows outdoor dining and houses a Jacuzzi with view of the surroundings.

The selection of interior finishes exudes a modern, elegant style while the details of the furnishings accentuate clean lines and chic styling. As a whole, Paterson Collection embodies a contemporary architectural language with a living façade that changes throughout the day.

Rising from the slopes of Leonie Hill, Twin Peaks towers above the city skyline. It is a premier luxury residential development designed for high society. Given the expansive site, Ti decided to restrict the development’s building footprint and extend the towers upwards, leaving more room for resident facilities. This resulted in the design of two symmetrical 35-storey towers that house 231 units each.

The articulated volumes and interlocking forms that break the linearity of the tower block also serve to maximise the views from all units. The layered sunscreens across the façade provide shading and privacy while infusing it with the visual delicacy akin to a lace veil. Capable of being deployed by each user, it creates an ever-changing texture to the skin of the two towers. Sky terraces interrupt the sheer verticality of its form. Geometric reliefs that mark out the individualised gymnasiums and recreational amenities act as contrast points in a façade which features a nearly pure form. 

To ‘value-add’ to the development, Ti unlocked the potential of the expansive estate grounds with a varied landscape, from simple manicured lawns to rich landscapes that provide serendipitous pockets of quietude and the luxury of space. The variety of unit layouts provides ample selection, and the flexibility to combine adjoining units gives owners the luxury of expanding their homes.

In today’s highly competitive home property market, what is valued in a designer is the ability to accurately pinpoint opportunities to differentiate the living experience, and to accurately predict and interpret the market trends.