Design of the Year
Meyer House
MeyerHouse sits in Singapore’s prime eastern residential enclave. Its 56 large-format residences on a one-hectare site represent an opportunity for nearby landed homeowners to ‘right-size’ into bungalow-apartments-in-the-sky with expanded amenities and long views across the estate and an adjacent one-hectare park.
The five-storey attic development is arrayed in a contiguous ‘C’ configuration, with all units overlooking an internal forested garden and out across the borrowed landscape of the adjacent public park that was upgraded to create a seamless datum of expanded greenery with facilities benefiting residents and the wider community.
The building adopts a ‘House-in-a-House’ principle by amalgamating units into a form scaled to a traditional French Chateau. Its stately expressionism and uniform façade of bespoke GFRC louvres offer privacy to residents, screen building services, and abstract the building envelop into a sculptural form that is delightfully lit at night.
The internal undulating English gardens with flowering plants and tall trees are cocooned by timber blinds that screen the residences and imbue the tranquil gardens with warmth and character. An axial pool reinforces long views framed by a low-slung stone house that consolidates communal lounges and entertainment amenities.
A series of terracing gardens cascade down onto the lower ground levels, bathing the subterranean water courts and collonaded walkways with natural daylight and ventilation. Communal amenities are doubled by this additional sun-lit level, with the arrival lobbies, drop-offs, and gym sitting below the gardens above. Residences are accessed off these gardens and water courts.
Arriving at their bungalows, residents drive up to their lower-ground private ‘car porch’ and access lobbies connected to their upper-level residence via a direct home lift, where ultra-wide living spaces extend onto large outdoor rooms nestled amongst the greenery. A combination of screens, blinds, and trellises offer residents control over privacy and openness to the gardens and nature.
WOHA Architects Pte. Ltd.
Wong Mun Summ
Unison Construction Pte Ltd