SIA Architectural Design Awards 2021 – Category: Residential Projects 

Merit Award

o House of Gables, RT+Q Architects Pte Ltd

A multigeneration house on a hill at Cornwall Gardens, House of Gables sought to create a home that connects a family through expression and memory, whilst providing private spaces with a sense of ownership for each of the family members.

The site sits in a quiet residential area with large mature trees in the neighbouring plots, with the land sloping 4m down from the main road. To create an expansive garden space at the rear, the house was situated close to the front site setback. Hence, the challenge was to create easy vehicular access, while maintaining a visual privacy at the front of the house.

Aspiring to bring the essence of the primitive hut to a modern context, the feature of the three pitched roofs connects the expression of the facade to the high atrium space, lining the central spine of the home. The atrium roof is shaped with accentuated rafters that adjoins two dormer windows, harkening back to memories of the previous house of the family and creating a connection the nostalgic past. The dormer windows also allow us to reinterpret the use of dormer in the colonial black and white houses.

Jury Citation:

The House of Gables is a 3-generation house that directly addresses the memory of the family’s former house and heritage through several specific points, such as the reuse of saved family lampshades, highlighting dormer windows and gable roof forms as nostalgic callbacks. Reconstituted in a new house with clear form and lines, familiarity for the occupants is retained. Coupled with the resolution of programmatic functions, the character of the family is palpably present and the balance of all factors in execution was appreciable.