Pocket Garden House explores a new typology for multi-generational post-covid home, one that establishes a harmonious symbiotic relationship with Nature and surroundings.

Nestled within a dense housing estate in Singapore, the home resides on a triangular plot of land. 

Taking advantage of the site’s geometry, ‘left-over’ spaces of each storey is designed as a Pocket Garden. 15 Pocket Gardens of various sizes & heights are distributed throughout the house. 

Every room has a pocket garden. These are designed with tall potted trees, potted herbs and even a fish pond. Serving as “in-between spaces”, the gardens help mediate the indoor temperature, providing shelter from both thermal radiation and rain of the tropics. The design deftly balances economics of space, premium real estate and Clients’ requirements, who love gardening.   

Despite its compact design, the interior spaces are bright & airy, imbued with a sense of openness and connection to outdoors. The porosity of interior spaces and building envelope help the home to ‘breathe’.

Interesting sight lines and visual connectivity help users to bond across this 3-storey with attic and mezzanine abode. Pockets of greenery are interweaved into the living experience.

This home offers a variety of living and focused work space. The home allows for hosting of large groups, solitary contemplation as well as recreational spaces i.e.  pool, music and entertainment room. 

Much emphasis was placed on Passive Design Strategies for this terrace house.
Porosity of building envelope and locations of fenestrations are designed to harness the prevailing NE/ SW Monsoon wind which helps ventilate the interiors. Tall double-volume high ceiling of living room, openness of interiors are designed to facilitate cross-ventilation.

Mark 12 Architects have expressed the Pocket gardens on the façade as a series of rhythmic ‘subtractions’. This reduces the building bulk and granting the home a distinctive ‘checkerboard’ look.