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Kwee House

Kwee House
Singapore

This is a large house, almost on the equator, built by a young Singaporean in time to receive his bride and, later, some children.  The library is for him the most important room; the master bedroom had to be upstairs adjoining it.  Below the master bedroom are other bedrooms for children and guests.  Connections to the outdoors are really only visual since the equatorial humid heat is constant; large north and south overhangs keep out the unremitting overhead sun and trellises give open shade to lush interior gardens.  Beyond a peninsular dining terrace which was made more for looks than for use, a tempietto serves as a headquarters and frame for some prize dogs.  The site has no views, no trees, and so far no neighbors, though neighbors will one day be close.  Colors vary only subtly in value—hues cool toward the center, warm toward the outside—they contrast with richly polychromed beamed tray ceilings in the living and dining rooms.  The service wing houses, in the local tradition, one person to take care of the house; below is a garage for two cars, behind a gate at the end of the cul-de-sac.   The house’s spirit, we think, comes from its play of formal symmetrical elements against a more languid drift of human circulation and tropical plantings.

 

Completion Date: 1984