Centennial Tree House

Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim

Centennial Tree House

Wallflower Architecture + Design

ARCHITECTS
Wallflower Architecture + Design

PHOTOGRAPHS
Albert Lim

AREA
781.0 m²

YEAR
2012

LOCATION
Singapore

CATEGORY
Houses

Text description provided by architect.

The owner wanted external blank walls. Then talk continued to fixed screens. Centre courtyard for light and air. These summed up for them, the tangible facets of an ideal home, a protective enclosure of solitude.

Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim

Introversion has a negative connotation in a culture where being social and outgoing are prized above all else.

But what is withdrawal to some is energizing for those who thrive on self-reflection and contemplation; life is found within.

That fortitude and strength is visually given expression by a hundred year old frangipani tree literally found within, centred in a large grassed courtyard surrounded with water.

Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim

The tree was given a new lease of life having been rescued from a Holland Road site slated for new development.

True to the owners’ requirements, the facade is entirely sealed off in most areas, and veiled by fixed timber screening in others.

The purity of intention to internalise results in a purity of architectural elevation on three sides; there is no yard, opening, back of house, but a pebbled path between a rhythmic timber screen and a lush wall of polyalthias.

Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim

Visually, the aesthetics exclude both physically and psychologically, but the timber screens along the periphery of the 1st storey allow breezes to comb through, refreshing the sheltered corridors and living spaces.

The central court encourages this, acting as both a light and air well. Throughout the day as the environment changes, the breezes shift, the house breathes.

The only area where the timber screens can be opened is between the second storey master bedroom and the court. Motors silently fold the screens away, linking the court to the bedroom.

Centennial Tree House
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim

The central air and light well is key to the experience and enjoyment of the house through the day as the light shifts, different walls, passages, are literally seen in a different light, or shade or shadow.

The centennial tree awakes, basks, and rests; and the surrounding spaces share that experience.

The aesthetic encounter is intensified perhaps because there are no distractions from the world outside; Even the world outside is acquired as the sky above is framed by the court and forms part of the spatial composition.

Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim

The elemental reduction of sky above, water surrounding an island of grass below, all axially centred by the stolid tree distils for the owners what life can and should be; a re-focus on the basics being pure, simple, and celebrated.

Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim


Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim


Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim
Centennial Tree House
© Albert Lim


Centennial Tree House
First Floor Plan
Centennial Tree House
Second Floor Plan
Centennial Tree House
Basament Floor Plan
Centennial Tree House
Roof Floor Plan


Centennial Tree House
Section
Centennial Tree House
Section