The Nassim Road house represents a high water mark in the output of Bedmar & Shi; a perfect culmination of their architectural typologies, interior design sophistication, and cultural awareness. This house stands out, in part because of its rather unique brief. The client had already hired Bedmar & Shi to do their family residence next door; this house, which is joined to the main residence via a small sky bridge/staircase, functions less as a machine for living, and more as a machine for repose.
This can be seen in the property’s architectural layout. Rather than Bedmar’s signature pavilion-oriented delineation of private spaces, centred around a central courtyard and anchored by communal living spaces, this property features a more traditional house layout, with all spaces communally accessible and free flowing. Entry to the property comes via a stone driveway from the southwest, which leads to a dual-height open-air entry hallway of manicured rock gardens and large-scale stone slabs, covered by louvred wooden shades. The entry hallway is flanked at both the west of the garage and the southern corner of the main house by stunning, curvilinear chromed spiral staircases, that lead to the second floor pool pavilion/library, and living/dining spaces, respectively.
Again, given the nature of the brief, the house makes interesting use of spatial dynamics and focus; spaces for relaxation, reflection, and work take demonstrative precedence over personal living spaces. The ground floor/basement (the property’s land slopes sharply northward, leading the ‘ground floor’ from above grade to sub-grade) boasts spacious library/tv room and study room, as well as wine cellar and walk-in winter-wear closets with a relatively demure bedroom space. The first floor is separated into two parts, around a rectangular swimming pool, deck, and garden. The northern structure, which is above the garage, features a library and bathroom, while the main space to the south plays home to a large central space is parsed into living room and dining room through furniture layout, and a large terrace that features spectacular views of Singapore to the south.
Landscaping, both in the gardens and the entranceway, play a major role. The owner is an ethnic Chinese Singaporean whose métier is education, and here Bedmar & Shi have combined the aesthetic, the cultural, and the architectural to form the sublime. Large stones are installed throughout the property; at the entranceway, in the reflecting pool that separates this house from the neighbouring family residnece, and in the gardens, creating a sense of great calm and natural inspiration. Historically, in China, great pieces of TaiHu limestone, known as Scholar’s Rocks, were used as inspiration by poets, painters, and thinkers. Rather than going out into nature to paint or compose, they worked within the seclusion of their studios, and used these ‘representations of mountains’ as inspiration for their work.
This sense of calm, expansiveness, and inspiration runs throughout the Nassim Road house. Signature elements, including the ability to open spaces up to each other through large sliding glass doors, slatted light wooden overhangs shielding transitional spaces from the elements without enclosing them, and a free-flow of movement and light are all at play here.
From a conceptual perspective this house functions as an interesting interpretive exercise in our understanding of ‘the house’. Bedmar has taken the primary elements of a household, while subtracting those aspects of ‘the house’ that are most typically identified in the making of a home (namely private sleeping areas), and created a place of great solace and comfort. This is a property of warmth and invitation, despite not being centrally focussed around the tenets of occupancy usually associated with private residences.
