Pushing The Boundary Of Today’s Home

• 31 December 2015
• Local News
• 951 Views

A house by definition is a shelter built to house people from the harsh environment it is in. A house usually has four walls with clearly defined functional spaces such as an entrance foyer, car porch, living room, dining room, kitchen and bedroom etc… and outside the house there are the outdoor spaces with some landscape design.

The indoor and outdoor spaces are clearly separated by plastered walls with traditional or European molding details and punched-in grilled frame windows and doors. This boundary shares so little or has no sense of transitional space between what is inside and outside of the house. “Pushing the Boundary of Today’s Home” tells the story of how today’s home is no longer defined by its four walls and the adjacency of its exterior and interior spaces that defines the organic part of life which influence the way we live. In all of our residential projects, we take an urgent look into how transitional spaces, green spaces and functional relationship of space are working together to enhance the activities of the home owner.

Transitional space is a threshold that reflects the position at the border, it can be a small landing before entering a house, a deck that connects the inside and the outside, or a balcony that allows the space to flow from inside to outside and vice versa. The principle design concept is to make material continuously flow in and out, allowing its texture, colour and pattern to go through these transitional spaces.

Green spaces and outdoor views are most desirable in our today’s houses, interior space layout must be carefully planned to maximise the view towards it as well as controlling the movement around it. Thus, the architecture of the house takes shape and its materialisation from choosing the right materials and locations for the views. The interior spaces of all levels can be designed around an internal courtyard making it the focal point in the house or it can be positioned to face the owner of the house when he/she opens the main door which is also making this green space to be the main view of the living space inside.

The functional programs of the exterior spaces can be purposely designed to offer the overflow of activity from inside to outside of the house. In this case, the dining room with an open kitchen is an ideal space for a family to interact while the outdoor deck can also be easily accessible by opening the sliding doors. These two functions are now connected and they can accommodate more people and transform its functions from semi-private to a public space. Sometimes vertical spaces can offer more than just a grand interior it can also allow spaces to be related to one another in a different level and at the same time allowing natural light to indirectly illuminating most part of the interior. While the double-height living room cans have ample of natural light, grand interior it can also offer the glimpse of outdoor space beyond their sitting level.

Pushing the Boundary of Today’s Home is a concept design to connect the interior and exterior of the house together through layout design, selection of materials, scale of activities, positions of views and the way natural light is ideally controlled inside the house.