EHKA Studio Designs Sculptural Stiletto House

Reinterpreted tropical architecture, sensual curves and an abundance of glass characterise this striking Singapore home, designed by EHKA Studio to both display and be a display. We speak with EHKA co-founder Hsia Pin Hsu about his studio’s very first completed residential project

Design Anthology: How did you first meet the client?

Hsia Pin Hsu: Our client was introduced to us by a mutual friend. We consider ourselves very blessed to be selected as the architects, because at that point we’d just started out and had no residential architecture projects in our portfolio, only a few designs that had never been built. This is actually our first completed residential project.

What was the client’s brief to you?

He wanted to create a very different house from those usually found in Singapore. It was to be unique, curvy and have a ‘wow’ factor. He also wanted plenty of glass and a double-volume living area with tall columns.

How did the client’s lifestyle influence the design?

The homeowner is a single retiree who’s an avid collector of antiques and ultra-modern furniture. He envisioned a house to showcase the collections he’s amassed over the years. Privacy isn’t a key concern for him, which is why he wanted to have the house enclosed in glass.

What is the overall size of the house?

The overall floor area is just over 850 square metres, spread over five storeys including a basement, mezzanine and attic.

How did you approach the project, and what was the idea behind the curvaceous form?

As designers, we have always loved free-flowing curves; in fact one of our unbuilt designs displays a similar use of such curves. When our client requested a curvy house, we proposed the use of these fluid curves. While it wasn’t what he initially had in mind, he liked it enough to take a chance on us. We felt that the softness of the curves worked well with the grand double-volume spaces that he envisioned.

Can you share some of the details that make this home so unique?

The entry is sheltered by two curved pods that are each supported by a stiletto-shaped column. The curved floor plates, facade and roof eaves are very unusual for this context, since homes that have to comply with the area’s setback requirements tend to be more rectilinear in form. However, even with the curved forms we managed to maximise floorspace by combining curved walls with balcony spaces. We also increased the built-in areas by inserting a mezzanine, which we designed with a glass floor in order to open up the space below and allow natural light in.

Where there any particular challenges or constraints to do with the site?

Given the site’s location on low-lying ground, it’s required by the authorities that the house is elevated by about one and a half metres from the road. To negotiate this change of level, we created steps that unfurl from the landscape. 

The entry porches had to follow the maximum heights allowed by the Urban Development Authority. While we originally wanted the higher one to be an extension of the second-floor slab, it didn’t meet these height restrictions, so we lowered it and that fortunately led to the effect of the porches overlapping at different heights, which makes it more visually interesting.

Can you tell us about the materiality and construction techniques?

Even given the seemingly complex shapes, the geometries can be reduced to simple concepts so that the construction methodology is reasonably basic and doesn’t require any special building technology. The materials — concrete and glass — are common to Singaporean homes. They make construction easier and keep costs down. The sculpted columns are made from reinforced concrete; laser-cut formwork and flexible plywood were used to form the shape, then the concrete was plastered and smoothed out by hand.

Was sustainability a consideration? If so, how was that incorporated into the design and construction?

Heat gain was a major issue from the outset. While the client requested large glass facades, too much glass is usually not a good idea in Singapore’s hot and sunny climate. To overcome this, we looked to traditional tropical design concepts: large overhanging eaves and balconies to provide shade, cross-ventilated spaces, large ceiling fans, bodies of water to help cool the air and low-emissivity glass to reduce heat transmission. We custom designed an exterior sliding door to shield the glass doors leading to the deck behind the dining area. These screens are angled to block out direct sunlight while still allowing daylight in. On the upper floors, solid walls are placed at the west-facing sides and we also placed the bathrooms and walk-in-wardrobes on this side to buffer the heat. One thing we realised along the way is the need for a extractor fan at the top of the staircase to extract the hot air that rises up the staircase void. These simple and effective methods reduce thermal heat gain and consequently reduce the need for mechanical cooling, which is the primary consumer of energy in many buildings.

Images / Studio Periphery and Dan Loo