OVERLAP HOUSE
Small rooms can be perceived as larger when their boundaries are extended, and when one originally limited space ‘over-flows’ and overlaps into another. A shifted bar counter extends the kitchen out of its walled confines and into an adjacent living room. A demolished wall allows the living room to flow and form a seamless larger space. A bedroom projects out into a walk-in-wardrobe where it then meets the living spaces. In this project, we explore the fluidity of spaces where they extend and overlap – breaking down the limitations of small spaces in small flats in the Singapore housing context.
A kitchen spills out of its walls into the living room.
The open kitchen counter doubles as a standing bar or a quick breakfast setting for the owners – or too, as a service counter for dinner parties (as is a part of the lifestyle of the owners of the flat who are entrepreneurs in the food industry). In fact, the counter marks as a dry kitchen and an extension of the wet kitchen from behind the walls, into the combined living and dining space.
The living space is one seamless extended space.
The walls of one of the bedrooms in the original 4-bedroom layout has been demolished, making the living space an extended single space that straddles TV and sofa area, dining, ‘dry kitchen’ counter and day lounge. A set of sliding glass doors stand ready to close off the day lounge whenever needed, creating a private entertainment room as a result. Otherwise, on other days, the living room is really one big space that stretches almost two-thirds of the length of the floor plan. In such a space, furniture ‘islands’ demarcate spatial functions rather than walls. Objects and memorabilia that the couple have from their globe-trotting holidays colour and anchor the spatial ‘zones’. A wall of magnets covers and personalises the commonplace household shelter door, becoming a feature of the living space.
The bedroom projects out into a walk-in-wardrobe.
The walk-in-wardrobe is an outward extension of the master bedroom into the living space, forming a corridor flanked on one side by a length of floor-to-ceiling wardrobe and storage spaces – the corridor is the wardrobe! Walking past the corridor and up a couple of short steps, one enters a cosy enclosed Japanese styled bed-space elevated on a custom-made timber storage platform.
A kitchen spills out of its walls into the living room.
The open kitchen counter doubles as a standing bar or a quick breakfast setting for the owners – or too, as a service counter for dinner parties (as is a part of the lifestyle of the owners of the flat who are entrepreneurs in the food industry). In fact, the counter marks as a dry kitchen and an extension of the wet kitchen from behind the walls, into the combined living and dining space.
The living space is one seamless extended space.
The walls of one of the bedrooms in the original 4-bedroom layout has been demolished, making the living space an extended single space that straddles TV and sofa area, dining, ‘dry kitchen’ counter and day lounge. A set of sliding glass doors stand ready to close off the day lounge whenever needed, creating a private entertainment room as a result. Otherwise, on other days, the living room is really one big space that stretches almost two-thirds of the length of the floor plan. In such a space, furniture ‘islands’ demarcate spatial functions rather than walls. Objects and memorabilia that the couple have from their globe-trotting holidays colour and anchor the spatial ‘zones’. A wall of magnets covers and personalises the commonplace household shelter door, becoming a feature of the living space.
The bedroom projects out into a walk-in-wardrobe.
The walk-in-wardrobe is an outward extension of the master bedroom into the living space, forming a corridor flanked on one side by a length of floor-to-ceiling wardrobe and storage spaces – the corridor is the wardrobe! Walking past the corridor and up a couple of short steps, one enters a cosy enclosed Japanese styled bed-space elevated on a custom-made timber storage platform.
Project Year: 2016
