Houzz Tours
Houzz Tour: An Ingenious Garden Home in Opera Estate
See an architect couple's gloriously green take on terrace house design
Terrace houses pose several challenges to designers and homeowners – poor lighting, lack of circulation and limited space, among others. For their inter-terrace family home, architect husband-and-wife team Warren Liu and Darlene Smyth of A D Lab faced these challenges head on. “The requirement was to make the typically dark and narrow terrace house feel spacious and lofty, to integrate the outdoors seamlessly with the indoors, to create an environment that feels natural and not contrived, where the family can relax as well as entertain comfortably,” says Smyth. The resulting garden home is a breath of fresh air in more ways than one.
Low, comfy lounging sofas set the tone for the living room, a “chill-out space”, which also doubles as a screening room. “One whole wall is painted with projection paint and movies are projected across the entire surface of the wall,” says Smyth.
Warm tones and brightly coloured artwork create a welcoming atmosphere. In the background, a balcony/pocket garden serves as a verdant backdrop to the living room.
(Living) Togo sofas: Ligne Roset; side tables: Xtra Design
Warm tones and brightly coloured artwork create a welcoming atmosphere. In the background, a balcony/pocket garden serves as a verdant backdrop to the living room.
(Living) Togo sofas: Ligne Roset; side tables: Xtra Design
The front garden sits atop the car porch’s roof – an example of a clever use of limited space. With this relaxing landscaped space visible to and accessible from the living room, the architects provide a connection between the indoors and outdoors.
The living room also offers an excellent vantage point to the tiered open spaces that characterise this house. Across the living room and one mid-level down is the dining room, which opens onto the back garden and swimming pool. Smyth says: “The front and the back facades of the first storey living spaces have been opened up to the maximum, using transparent roller shutters that can be hidden in the ceiling. This allows the prevailing winds to flow through the house.”
The homeowners do a lot of entertaining in the kitchen/dining area, a sleek space with glossy marble and a high-polish black finish on the kitchen cabinetry. The open plan allows the man of the house to interact with his guests while he indulges his love of cooking. Given the space constraints, the huge kitchen island doubles as dining table, comfortably seating 10 to 12 people and affording dinner guests a view of the pool and garden.
“All surfaces in this room are dark so that it visually distinguishes itself from the rest of the connecting space, which is white,” says Smyth. “It creates a dark and cosy portal-like space.”
“All surfaces in this room are dark so that it visually distinguishes itself from the rest of the connecting space, which is white,” says Smyth. “It creates a dark and cosy portal-like space.”
A small swimming pool at the rear of the house is bordered by a textured wall embedded with plants and ventilation blocks, and a small deck with large planters. The architects describe this as the “immersion of natural greenery throughout both the internal and external spaces of the house”, which creates the feeling of “being encompassed by a boundless garden.”
At the heart of this house is a triple-volume central courtyard, which is vital in creating the sense of space and transparency, and which lets in great amounts of natural light. “The centre of the home, which is in many inter-terrace houses a dark and uncomfortable space, is here transformed into a lush internal garden,” says Smyth, referring to the leafy ficus tree within a water feature at the courtyard’s base.
Smyth adds that “we wanted the house to be open in the centre so that we could communicate with each other as a family and supervise the children.”
Smyth adds that “we wanted the house to be open in the centre so that we could communicate with each other as a family and supervise the children.”
Delicate hanging plants echo the direction of the stairs leading up to the more private areas of the house or down to the living/dining area. Smyth says: “Several levels of tiered opened spaces can be seen while looking through the central courtyard – each planted with trees and creepers that lead the eye through the house.”
(Throughout the house) Artemide lights: Million Lighting
(Throughout the house) Artemide lights: Million Lighting
A pop of red, courtesy of the family room’s sofa, stands out against the muted tones of the second storey. Louvres facing the central courtyard allow control of how much sunshine, rain, wind and noise goes into the bedrooms, located on this level and the level above it.
“These gardens and courtyard spaces of the home allow the occupants to feel the movement of natural light across the house throughout the day, while shading them from its harsh impact,” says Smyth. Without a doubt, the architects have created a home that’s an oasis for everyone living in it.
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See more of this project
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What do you like best about this house? Let us know in the Comments section.
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: An architect couple and their children
Location: Opera Estate
Size: 129.4 square metres (site); 313.6 square metres (GFA)
Project duration: 12 months
With its multifaceted facade, shot through with lush greenery, this house cuts a striking figure, as seen from the street. The original single-storey building on the site was demolished and rebuilt as a terrace house with a basement, two storeys and an attic. To maximise the living spaces, all service areas were tucked into the basement, which opens to the car porch up front.