A small family of 3 had specific ‘feng shui’ requirements for the house, with 2 bedrooms on the 1st storey and the rest of the rooms housed in a tower. The detached house sits on a squarish site with an area of 833 m2. With 2 of the 3 bedrooms located on the 1st storey, the challenge was how to then separate the living areas from the private rooms. The solution was to invert the relationship, with the public spaces facing internal courtyards and the bedrooms facing the front garden.

The house is cladded in face brick, with clay roof tiles and aluminium screens. Off form concrete is used in the living room walls, with precast concrete slabs for the courtyard floor. The overall palette is monochromatic and echoes Asian traditional architecture. The double volume living area faces two courtyards. The first courtyard is an entrance area with shelter for carparking as well as direct access to the service zone. The second more private court is enclosed by a single storey structure housing the bedrooms. 

The inverted relationship of private spaces to the front garden & public spaces to internal courtyards reflects the firm’s continued search for new ways to arrange spaces in the dense context of Singapore. Cloister House – its name reflects both the architecture with an enclosed court, and the act of sheltering the house from public view.