Namly Treehouse
This is a project about conserving what is good from the past, and working with the land in proposing what will be beneficial to man and the environment in the future. The ecologically-minded clients purchased a 1960s bungalow with a steep hillside occupying almost 30 per cent of the rear garden. As tempting as it was to tear down and rebuild a new house to maximise economic returns, we jointly agreed to conserve the existing house through a sensitive renovation, and build an extension on the hillside that celebrates the distant city views from the steep slopes. This strategy required an exemption from the planning authorities to create a massing that broke beyond the typical two-storey limit in the neighbourhood. As a result, the ‘TreeHouse’ that is nestled in a reforested hillside peeks out from behind the original house to give the appearance of a sensitive insertion into the residential context. The roof rafters from the original house are extensively reused in the interiors by making new furniture. We employed maximum use of solar technology and rainwater harvesting to minimise resource utilisation and dependency on the city grid. Where available, the open spaces will be intelligently planted with vegetation that has shade value or can be an edible resource.
Location Singapore Completion Date 2022
CL: Has this pandemic affected the progress of your projects, especially the overseas ones? MW: I can’t say that it has changed those overseas projects tremendously; they are all still ongoing. Everybody is working hard everywhere to keep things moving forward. In fact, I don’t even think they have slowed down. We have projects in India that are moving full steam ahead. Although there have been several lock-downs and slow-downs, they find ways to make up for it. In the case of the Ubud resort it’s a slow development; it’s not going to happen very quickly, so it’s ongoing. The Mandai resort is ongoing too. These things are on course. In a sense, we are talking about developers with very sophisticated project management strategies, who are working around COVID-19, and figuring out ways to keep moving forward. I think the biggest setbacks are in clients starting new projects. Everybody is very focused on keeping the work going, but we don’t see as many new developments starting. We do a lot of tourism—we foresee that tourism is going to be very affected by the pandemic going forward, because people are just not going to travel as much in the future, although they are more likely to travel for tourism maybe than for business. We can’t replace a holiday with a Zoom call, but you can replace a site visit with a Zoom call.
CL: Do you have personal projects ongoing that are not based on architecture work? MW: I spend a lot of time outdoors—it’s really a high priority for me to experience all of Singapore’s nature reserves. So I’ve made it a goal of mine in the past year to get to know as many new parts of the country as I can. And a group of friends have gotten really seriously into photography and birding. So I’ve joined them in pursuing this interest in bird photography, not because I’m particularly interested in birds, but because I am interested in becoming a better photographer so that I can take better nature photos. I’ve always had a huge interest in seeds and seed pods. So I think ultimately this interest that I have in bird photography is going to improve my ability to understand nature as a whole. It is really opening up a new dimension of my understanding of the natural environment, to see how birds live. It’s a good, deep dive focus into one aspect of our natural world.
So for me it’s also tipping into botany. I’ve got better seed pod photos, tree growth photos… I can’t say that I am as good as those bird photographers. They have a kind of patience to sit and wait and to improve, to perfect and capture that rare thing that they are after, which I’m not really as patient, I have to say. I like to go out and walk. I need to move in nature. I don’t go there with a tripod and stand still. I would walk 10 kilometres and over the course, stop and see what I see.
CL: Any words of wisdom to share with up and coming, emerging architects, especially through this health crisis/pandemic? MW: It’s a gamechanger for sure. I think there are some young people who may never work in an office over the course of their career. First and foremost, my advice to young architects would be to develop a skill in an area that you’re passionate about, and be really good at it. And offer that skill maybe on a freelance basis, and find many opportunities to work, rather than the conventional approach to joining an office, and working your way across a project from beginning to end. We will always need people to do that, but maybe not as many. Over the years, we have found ourselves outsourcing more of our work, having more freelance- and consultant-based expertise. Right now, for example, we want experts. We want experts in topography, experts in botany, experts in landscape, master planning and in hydrology,
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